Fire Jay Monahan’: Rory McIlroy & Brooks Koepka’s Latest Humiliation Has Fans Making the Same Angry Point

Not long ago, there was a lot of buzz about golf going digital, with the winner of The Showdown set to take home prize money in cryptocurrency. The event featured World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and World No. 3 Rory McIlroy facing off against LIV Golf’s big names—Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka—at Shadow Creek Golf Club in Vegas.

This rare crossover between the two rival tours had everyone talking, so naturally, there was a lot of hype. But, as it turns out, the match didn’t live up to expectations. The PGA Tour duo comfortably swept all three sessions, leaving fans who were hoping for a closer contest feeling disappointed. And despite the digital prize money angle, you’d think that would bring in a ton of viewers, right? Well, not quite.

Josh Carpenter from Sports Business Journal shared the numbers, and let’s just say, they’re not great. According to Carpenter, The Showdown only pulled in 625,000 viewers across TNT and TBS, making it “the second-lowest total ever in The Match series.” Ouch!

To put that in perspective, The Match has been a thing since 2018, with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson at the same venue. And usually, it’s a big deal—like 1 million+ viewers. Take The Match: Champions for Charity in 2020, with Woods, Mickelson, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady—it got 5.8 million viewers.

But this year’s The Match IX, with McIlroy, Max Homa, Lexi Thompson, and Rose Zhang? It got just 511,000. So, yeah, The Showdown did a little better, but still nothing to write home about.

And if you think the ratings for golf this year have been rough, you’re right. The average Sunday viewership for the PGA Tour was 2.8 million, but that’s a 20% drop from last year (if you leave out the Majors). And then, when the FedEx Cup Fall season kicked off? Just 69,000 people tuned in to watch Patton Kizzire win the Procore Championship on the Golf Channel.