There’s already a lot to talk about this week in the PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf as the players from both circuits reunite for the Masters in the top players’ first tournament together since last July’s Open Championship.

Before the first ball is struck, the American-based tour can claim a runaway win.

Despite the PGA Tour’s TV ratings on NBC for the Valero Texas Open being 20 percent down this year for Brian Harman’s win, compared to Akshay Bhatia’s victory a year ago, it still drew more than four times the viewers on Sunday compared to Marc Leishman’s victory in LIV Golf Miami on Fox. It was a decisive win for the PGA Tour in the first time the two tours were going head-to-head on broadcast TV.

According to Sports Business Journal, the Texas Open averaged 1.75 million viewers—260 percent higher than LIV’s average of 484,000 for its 2025 U.S. opener after the first four events were played overseas. This, despite the event in San Antonio featuring only one of the world’s top-10 players, Maverick McNealy, among the contenders. Chasing Leishman early on Sunday were major winners Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia and Charl Schwartzel.

According to SBJ, the PGA Tour outperformed LIV by a wider margin on Saturday—1.583 million on NBC to 137,000 on Fox Sports 1. On Thursday and Friday, the PGA Tour drew averages of 327,000 and 318,000, respectively on Golf Channel, while LIV’s first round Friday on Fox got 369,000—marking the one day it did better.

SBJ reported that LIV’s Miami numbers did exceed its previous all-time best of 432,000 for the 2024 season opener on The CW. For comparison, SBJ said that in the same Sunday window a year ago, Fox drew 205,000 viewers for an MLS match (Timbers-Sporting K.C.) and 849,000 viewers for a UFL game (Roughnecks-Defenders).

LIV’s deal with Fox has put the fourth-year league on a major U.S. network for the first time, and the league’s new CEO, Scott O’Neil, recently acknowledged, in an interview with the Palm Beach Post, the importance of seeing good TV numbers.

“Is this weekend important? Of course, it is,” O’Neil said ahead of Miami. “This one is important in the U.S., for the U.S. broadcast, and it’s on Fox, and that’s an exciting opportunity. Judge me this week, for sure.”

Main Image: Jonathan Bachman