“It's quite nauseating” - Max Homa backs Rory McIlroy’s hot take on the worrying fall in golf viewership, takes a jibe at LIV Golf
Max Homa has come in support of Rory McIlroy's statement, emphasizing that the lower TV ratings for both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf events were due to the overstretched tussle between the two circuits for the past two years, which was the reason for fatigue among the fans.
The Masters 2024 final round witnessed a 20% decline in viewership in comparison to the past year. This was not the only case, as the viewership of the WM Phoenix Open and Players Championship also went down this year.
Earlier this month, McIlroy said that the outside controversies and no solution to the LIV-PGA negotiation so far were one of the reasons for fatigue among fans. During the Wednesday press conference of the RBC Heritage, Max Homa echoed the Northern Irishman's sentiments.
The six-time winner on the PGA Tour said he was amazed by the fatigue he was having from the outside events. He added that he enjoyed every tournament, be it the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Players, or the Masters. However, the viewership was telling that fans were a bit exhausted.
"They probably should have fatigue," he continued while taking an indirect jibe on LIV Golf. "I don't know why they'd want to care about how much money we're making and how much more money we want to make. It's quite nauseating."
"I have been told probably not to look too much into all those numbers because these things happen and there's trends and things and whatever. I'm not going to go into that because I really don't know anything about it," he added.
He revealed that they had the PAC meeting on Tuesday, April 16, where he was happy with the hope and future planning to make the product better for the fans. He further stated:
"I think we hit this year-and-a-half- or two-year rut as both golfers and golf leagues that was just about making the players happy, and unfortunately and quite obviously the fans were not benefitted by that."
Max Homa added that he was hopeful that more progress would happen to make the product more viewer-friendly and engaging.
When will Max Homa tee off at the RBC Heritage on Friday?
Max Homa is paired with Tommy Fleetwood for the second round of the RBC Heritage. The duo will tee off on Friday, April 19, at 1:50 pm ET. The second round of the fifth Signature Event of the season will begin at 8:15 am ET with Akshay Bhatia and Will Zalatoris teeing off from the first hole.
Max Homa shot an even-par 71 in the opening round and was placed T51 at eight strokes behind the leader, JT Poston. However, he is not in any kind of danger considering the RBC Heritage is a no-cut Signature event.
Speaking of his recent form, he just made his best performance at the majors by finishing T3 at the Masters Tournament last week. So far, he has missed just one cut and has registered six times inside the top 25 in nine starts before this week.