The Masters’ final round gets the BEST TV ratings since 2018 with an average of 12.06million viewers

Sunday’s spectacle at Augusta National Golf Club saw the most people tune in to watch the final round at The Masters in five years. 

The last-round Masters showdown between eventual victor Jon Rahm and LIV Golf’s Brooks Koepka was the most-watched golf telecast on any network since 2018, CBS said on Tuesday.

The telecast averaged 12.06million viewers, up 19 percent compared with Scottie Scheffler’s win at last year’s Masters.

Rahm came back from a two-shot deficit on Sunday to win his second major and reclaim the world No. 1 ranking, 

Ratings for Rahm’s victory peaked at more than 15m viewers from 7.00-7.15pm ET (23.00-23.15pm GMT), as Rahm was putting the finishing touches on his four-shot victory over Koepka and Phil Mickelson.

The Masters has long been one of the most-anticipated golf events, but the 2023 edition had added intrigue given it was the first since the start of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit, which drew in a prominent group of players like Koepka and Mickelson.

It was the most watched golf broadcast on any network since the 2018 edition of The Masters – where Patrick Reed was able to hold off a surge from Rickie Fowler and other big names like Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, and Rahm. 

CBS says that combined with streaming, they averaged a viewership of 16.25million throughout a Sunday that saw some players in the field finishing up their third-round after a rain-soaked Saturday ended early.

The final round was also the most-streamed round of golf in the history of CBS’s streaming platform Paramount Plus.

It’s still a far cry from the all-time record for a golf telecast – when an astonishing 44million people tuned in to watch Tiger Woods and his ‘win for the ages’ at the 1997 Masters.