Report: Tiger Woods' Withdrawal Has Impact On Genesis Invitational TV Viewing Figures

The Genesis Invitational is traditionally one of the biggest events on the PGA Tour calendar, and the 2024 edition was no different. 

However, the final round at Riviera Country Club reportedly didn’t quite capture the imagination of TV fans as much as the 2023 finale. That’s despite 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama carding a breathtaking nine-under 62 in the final round to win by three shots. 

Per Josh Carpenter of Sports Business Journal, the Japanese star’s heroics attracted 3.245m CBS viewers on Sunday. That’s down around 5% on the 2023 total for the final round, where 3.424m fans watched Jon Rahm hold off the challenge of Max Homa to claim his third PGA Tour win of the year and return to the top of the world rankings. 

One big advantage the final round of the 2023 edition had over this year’s finale was the participation of Tiger Woods. The 15-time Major winner rolled back the years on the Saturday with a hugely impressive four-under 67. Even though he could only follow that up with a 73 on Sunday to finish T45, his overall performance offered plenty of encouragement to fans hoping to see him return to some of his best form as the year progressed.

After Woods limped out of the Masters, though, ankle surgery soon put paid to that hope, and, following appearances towards the end of the year at the Hero World Challenge and PNC Championship, he returned to competitive PGA Tour action at last week's event.

Unfortunately for the 48-year-old, who was hosting the tournament, any hopes he had of playing all four rounds were dashed when he had to withdraw during Friday’s second round because of flu, and he was also not around on Sunday to hand the trophy to Matsuyama. Another blow to the latter stages of the tournament came with the disqualification of three-time Major winner Jordan Spieth on Friday after signing an incorrect scorecard.

Despite those two high-profile absentees over the weekend, there were still plenty of big names who made the cut, with the likes of Matsuyama, Will Zalatoris, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele all battling out toward the top of the leaderboard in the signature event.

Even though the final round of the 2024 tournament couldn’t attract the same figure as last year, the number was still up significantly on the final round of two years ago, when 2.618m tuned in to watch Joaquin Niemann pick up his second PGA Tour win.