One player comes into the PGA Championship with the eyes of the golf world upon him: Scottie Scheffler (above). This year’s Masters champion has won four out of his last five tournaments, and he is the overwhelming favorite to lift the trophy at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville. 

But Scheffler’s victory at Augusta National, his second green jacket, didn’t seem to generate widespread mainstream interest. CBS drew an audience of roughly 9.5 million viewers for Sunday’s final round, down 20% from the 12 million that watched Jon Rahm come from behind to beat Brooks Koepka in 2023. At the time, Front Office Sports media expert Michael McCarthy asked the question: “Does golf TV have a Scottie Scheffler problem?”

Well, Scheffler won again the following week on Hilton Head Island, S.C., but the final round, which was interrupted by a rain delay, garnered 2.15 million viewers, down almost 50% from last year when 4.15 million people watched the conclusion of the RBC Heritage tournament, in which Matthew Fitzpatrick beat Jordan Spieth in a playoff. Scheffler hasn’t played since then, as he’s been awaiting the birth of his first child.

What’s the Deal?

Is Scheffler really what’s keeping more people from turning into golf broadcasts, though? At least one sports media expert thinks that the LIV Golf–PGA Tour battle, not Scheffler’s dominance, is the biggest reason for viewership declines. “You lose some competitive aspects,” Lee Berke, the president and CEO of consultancy LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media, tells FOS. 

That reasoning could explain why PGA Tour TV audiences aren’t as high this year, but not why the Masters was down, as all of the top LIV players competed at Augusta. So, what about Scheffler’s dominance? Is it too much? “I think people appreciate excellence,” ESPN golf host Scott Van Pelt said. “We’re always looking for that next person that we can say reminds us of this person. [But] no one’s going to remind us of Tiger [Woods].”

If Scheffler wins the PGA Championship, he would be the first golfer since Spieth in 2015 to win the first two majors of the year. That would put him halfway toward the calendar grand slam—something even Woods never accomplished.

While Scottie Scheffler looks to match the dominance of Tiger Woods on the course, the 15-time major champion is still the key to generating business for stakeholders away from the links. 

Woods will be helping lead negotiations with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia about becoming another minority investor in PGA Tour Enterprises. The Strategic Sports Group has already invested $1.5 billion in the newly formed for-profit entity.

Meanwhile, his mere presence at the PGA Championship should be good news for ESPN, which has coverage of the first two rounds. As Woods successfully battled to make the cut at the Masters, ESPN averaged 3.4 million viewers during rounds one and two, the network’s biggest two-day viewership since 2018. 

Fresh New Look

After ending his 27-year relationship with Nike, Woods this season has been wearing apparel from his new brand, Sun Day Red, which released its first collection this month. Sun Day Red will be available to purchase only on its website this year, before also heading to wholesale retailers in 2025, when junior and women’s gear will begin to be offered in addition to the men’s lines. 

Sun Day Red executives won’t rule out the idea of sponsoring other professional golfers in the future, or even exploring a return of the iconic TW logo Woods made famous by Nike. “That will be his decision,” Brad Blankinship, president of Sun Day Red, tells Front Office Sports. Sun Day Red’s primary logo is a brush-drawn tiger. “For now, he’s put out there that that’s in his past and he’s ready to move forward. So, I would say time will tell and it will be Tiger’s decision.”

Solid Footwork

At Valhalla, Woods will be dressed head-to-toe in Sun Day Red. That last part is crucial for the golfer who has at times struggled to even walk the course since his 2021 car accident that severely damaged his right ankle. Woods had stopped wearing Nike golf shoes and switched to a FootJoy model. “The good news is we’ve got Tiger in our shoes, and they’re working well for him,” Blankinship says. “That’s moving pretty fast—a little ahead of where we would have thought we’d be at this time.”

Sun Day Red footwear won’t be sold to the public until 2025, but Woods is staying intensely involved with every aspect of its testing. “He has a point of view and decades of knowledge that are really insightful and unique,” Blankinship says. “So, particularly on the footwear, he’s had a hand in every part of it—how many spikes, what we’re doing for the laces, the leather we use.”

Ball Is Life

Almost all of the clubs Woods used are made by TaylorMade, the parent company of Sun Day Red, but he plays a Bridgestone ball, the Tour B X model. To no one’s surprise, Bridgestone has a special Tiger Woods edition of that ball, which sees an uptick of sales in during weeks when Woods plays professionally, as well as increased web and social media traffic.

But Bridgestone, which has been working with Woods since 2017, relies on Woods for more than just sales. “The fun thing about Tiger is he can provide feedback beyond what we’re able to capture with the launch monitors,” Elliot Mellow, Bridgestone’s golf ball marketing manager, tells FOS. The expertise Woods has makes him more valuable than other professional golfers when it comes to testing. “He can hit something and say, ‘That doesn’t work for me, it’s launching too high. However, I could see that ball working for this type of player.’ And so on, and so forth. So, Tiger’s feedback really impacts the entire line of the Bridgestone offering.”