The Masters obtained a pleasant rankings enhance to kick off essentially the most anticipated weekend in golf.
ESPN’s stay telecast of Thursday’s first spherical averaged 3.2 million viewers, the very best since 2015. That 12 months, Jordan Spieth shot a gap spherical 8-under 64 en path to his first main championship title.
This 12 months, Tiger Woods, Max Homa, Brooks Koepka, Brian Harman, Dustin Johnson, and Spieth highlighted the afternoon wave, which overlapped with ESPN’s protection from Three to eight p.m. ET.
Woods performed a stable first 13 holes and ended at 1-under when officers suspended play on Thursday night. He regarded wholesome, a welcome sight for golf followers in all places after his disappointing withdrawal from the Genesis Invitational in mid-February.
Woods then resumed his opening spherical early Friday and made two bogeys over the ultimate 5 holes to shoot a 1-over 73.
Humorous sufficient, in 2015, Woods returned from a prolonged layoff and shot a 73—very like this 12 months. Besides this time round, the 15-time main champion went on to set a brand new Masters document by making 24 straight consecutive cuts. He carded an even-par 72 on Friday at Augusta Nationwide.
However by day’s finish Thursday, Bryson DeChambeau held the lead at 7-under, whereas Scottie Scheffler sat one stroke behind.
Thursday’s viewers peaked at 3.Eight million viewers within the 6:15 p.m. quarter-hour.
Final 12 months’s first spherical, which noticed Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, and Koepka open with 7-under 65s, averaged 2.5 million viewers.
With how tightly contested this 12 months’s iteration of The Masters seems to be, it might be a good bigger quantity because the week progresses.
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By. You should definitely take a look at @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You may observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as nicely.
