Editor’s note: “In Case You Missed It” is a GGP+ feature that highlights a story from Global Golf Post‘s Monday magazine.
Here in the soft days of early September, when school bells and football alarm bells are ringing again, let’s take a moment to consider not just what happened in this PGA Tour season but why it happened.
As often as we hear players saying their game is in good shape but they’re not getting much out of it, we hear the most successful ones insist they will reflect on their success once the season ends.
Well, for pretty much every player who draws eyeballs and the bureaucrats who have been fretting about the PGA Tour’s place in the sports universe, it’s time to reflect while reacting to new CEO Brian Rolapp’s futuristic vision.
It’s been a season worth smiling about.
Through the analytic lens of viewership numbers – it’s antiquated to call them television ratings now because, well, people consume their golf on various platforms these days – the tour had a big year.
CBS Sports reported its biggest ratings increase in seven years and NBC Sports is glowing over its numbers, particularly in the FedEx Cup playoffs that were capped by Tommy Fleetwood’s heartwarming victory, which drew the most viewers of any non-major championship this year.
What changed?
Rory McIlroy won three of the tour’s most glamorous events – the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Players Championship and the Masters – golf fans have embraced Scottie Scheffler’s rare brilliance, and Fleetwood’s magnetic personality coupled with the emotional investment that viewers developed as he chased his first PGA Tour victory were energizing and compelling.
The PGA Tour is star-driven and its stars delivered this year. Stars and stories are as simple and successful as Oreos.
McIlroy is the most popular player in the post-Tiger Woods era to the point he has transcended golf. Sports, whether it’s football, basketball or tennis, tend to be at their most interesting when there is a definitive front-runner not because they are necessarily the most popular but they provide a sense of scale.
The Buffalo Bills have proven to be one of the NFL’s best and most entertaining teams but the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles have managed to do what the Bills have not. In particular, the Chiefs have transcended football with their success and personalities in recent seasons and, Taylor Swift aside, drawn viewers and created conversation.
By stacking another five wins, including two more major championships, on his résumé this year, Scheffler has entered the career achievement discussion, invoking comparisons to Tiger Woods if only because he is doing Tiger-like things, a discussion Scheffler gently dismisses.
McIlroy is that way and his season, which soared through the Masters then seemed to drift after the green jacket ceremony before going full Rory again with his spectacular playoff victory Sunday in the Amgen Irish Open, gives the PGA Tour its alpha personality. His golf looks different and though he has his flat spots, McIlroy makes us turn our heads in his direction.
It took a while, longer than it should have, for Scheffler to reach that point but he’s there now, another reason the viewership numbers have jumped and the PGA Tour finds itself less threatened by LIV Golf than it has been since the breakaway group was created.
It’s one thing when the wild-card New York Giants randomly win a Super Bowl but it’s something else when the New England Patriots define the sport for a decade. Scheffler isn’t Tom Brady yet, but the notion he was one of many players who found the magic for a year or so has been buried under the avalanche of his sustained success.
The Scheffler narrative fully changed this year. He won hearts last year with how he handled his bizarre arrest at the PGA Championship and his tears upon winning the Olympic gold medal. By stacking another five wins, including two more major championships, on his résumé this year, Scheffler has entered the career achievement discussion, invoking comparisons to Tiger Woods if only because he is doing Tiger-like things, a discussion Scheffler gently dismisses.
That’s the other thing about Scheffler – his plain-spoken, from-the-heart answers to interview questions have given us a better sense of who he is. He’s loosened up, and his inherent honesty has made him more than a guy who plays better than everyone else.
If you’re on site where Scheffler is playing, listen to the kids in the gallery telling their parents they want to go see Scottie. It’s the sound of music to the tour.
Fleetwood has joined McIlroy and Scheffler at the top of the player popularity charts. Some of it is the result of Fleetwood’s tortured path to winning his first tour event but how he handled his disappointments made us all want to buy him a beer.
The storybook touch to Fleetwood’s Tour Championship/FedEx Cup victory felt like the cherry on top of a season that fully introduced us to Ben Griffin, delivered a tartan jacket to Justin Thomas, put J.J. Spaun in the forever loop of U.S. Open moments, turned Keegan Bradley into Captain America, showed a 45-year-old Justin Rose in bloom and gave Cam Young his trophy moment.
It’s quiet for the moment, as quiet as it can be with the Ryder Cup three weeks away. Listen close enough, though, and the noise of the season is still echoing.