Tiger Woods did not win the 2018 Valspar Championship (a thing I need to keep reminding myself), but he helped golf win both on and off the course. Woods thrilled galleries at Innisbrook with an outstanding 9-under 275, and millions more gathered to watch him on TV late on Sunday afternoon.
The event earned a 5.1 overnight rating, which is up 190 percent from last year's final round of the Valspar Championship -- won by Adam Hadwin -- and the biggest number in tournament history. It's also the biggest overnight rating for a non-major round since the 2013 Players Championship (which Tiger won).
To give some context for this, let's look at the final rating for the final rounds for the four majors last year.
- 2017 Masters: 6.8 rating
- 2017 U.S. Open: 3.1 rating
- 2017 Open Championship: 3.2 rating
- 2017 PGA Championship: 3.2 rating
According to Sports Media Watch, this was not just a major-like number but an historical major-like number. We have yet to see the final rating -- which should be slightly different than the overnight, but not dramatically so. Here's Sports Media Watch.
The 5.1 beat every PGA Championship telecast since 2014 (6.0), every U.S. Open telecast since 2013 (6.1), and every British Open telecast since 2000 (7.5).
Even when you compare the number to recent Tiger successes, it still sticks out. The Valspar rating was up 28 percent over the 2015 Wyndham Championship (when Tiger was in contention) and up 73 percent on the Honda Classic a few weeks ago.
