"Wait til Blockie accepts 70 million to join LIV" - Fans react to report claiming ratings fall at PGA Championship 2023

According to a recent report, the ratings for the final round of the 2023 PGA Championship suffered a 14% drop from last year's event. The numbers would have been even worse if not for Michael Block's incredible T15 finish.

The 46-year-old golf teacher's incredible run was the highlight of the Major as he recorded the highest finish by a club pro since 1986.

🚨JUST IN: PGA RATINGS SUFFER — Just 4.517M people tuned in for Sunday’s final round at Oak Hill, the lowest viewership for the event since 2008 and down 14% from JT’s win last year. If it weren’t for Michael Block, it may have been catastrophically bad numbers 🤯 (via… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

NUCLR Golf tweeted:

"JUST IN: PGA RATINGS SUFFER — Just 4.517M people tuned in for Sunday’s final round at Oak Hill, the lowest viewership for the event since 2008 and down 14% from JT’s win last year. If it weren’t for Michael Block, it may have been catastrophically bad numbers."

Fans believe that Block's performance was key to retaining viewers for the PGA Championship. One fan tweeted that the ratings will plummet even further if Block heads over to the rebel LIV Golf tour.

@NUCLRGOLF Wait til Blockie accepts 70 million to join LIV

Another Twitter user stated the blame can't be placed on LIV Golf alone. Although the league is controversial, Brooks Koepka, the eventual winner, had Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler breathing down his neck.

@NUCLRGOLF Struggle to believe this is purely LIV. Think it’s just a lack of innovation from PGAs side

One user stated that the PGA Championship is the least compelling Major tournament.

@NUCLRGOLF To anybody who tries to blame LIV, the Masters had their highest ratings in over five years with the same man having a lead going into the final round. The PGA Championship is the least compelling major of the four.

Another noted that the Major tournament's viewership has been on a downward spiral since 2021.

@NUCLRGOLF Genuinely surprised at this.

Here's a look at the last three years Sunday final round. Down over 2 million since Phil won in 2021.

2021 (Phil) - 6.7 million
2022 (JT) - 5.27 million
2023 (BK) - 4.52 million

Here are more reactions from fans after the report revealed the drop in the PGA Championship's viewership:

@NUCLRGOLF It’s because they moved the tournament to May when there is NBA conference championships, NHL conference championships, and the people from the Midwest and east coast are actually getting some warm weather to go out enjoy golf among other things themselves

@NUCLRGOLF August is a sports dead month. Moving to May was always going to mean lower ratings.

@NUCLRGOLF There’s probably some credit due to Brooks here. He’s a closer and assumptions were made that he wasn’t going to lose. No disrespect to Viktor but fans probably knew he was the closest threat and their resumes are not the same.

@NUCLRGOLF Tough when it’s on a long weekend, with the best weather coming on Sunday… 🇨🇦

The PGA Championship will be hoping that the reduction in viewership numbers is only a one-off occurrence and not symptomatic of a larger issue.

Michael Block could benefit from his incredible PGA Championship run

Michael Block is the most popular golfer in the world right now, without even winning the PGA Championship. He sank a hole in one and took the entire sport by storm with his performance.

Via CNN, Block shared his shock at his incredible shot:

“I hit it good, but I didn’t see it go in and Rory stops all of a sudden. He turns around, he’s got his arms open and is coming and giving me a hug. I’m going: ‘What is going on right now?’ He goes: ‘It went in the hole.’ I was like: ‘You’ve got to be kidding, right now under these circumstances that it went in the hole.’ Crazy.”

Block joked that his wife would now ask him to charge a lot more for instructions, and he admitted that he wasn't interested in moving into the professional scene officially. Block has received an invitation for the Charles Schwab Challenge.