Anthony Kim’s win in LIV Golf Adelaide 2026 was an emotional moment in the sport. The outstanding comeback he pulled off in the final round to beat Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau was worth every cent. However, it still didn’t make up for the numbers the PGA Tour pulled off, even though both events were live at separate times.

As Josh Carpenter from Sports Business Journal reported, “Fox averaged 331,000 viewers (big data) for the 11pm-1am window on Saturday night for Anthony Kim’s win at LIV Golf Adelaide.   Same window last year: 249,000 (panel only). Across four days on Fox/FS1/FS2, LIV Adelaide averaged 105,000 viewers.”

The viewership only jumped by about 25% since 2025. Last year, 249,000 fans tuned in to see Joaquin Niemann win his first title for the season. The Chilean pro had already proven himself to be a threat in the league in 2024. So his domination was anticipated. However, despite Kim’s surprise win, the last two hours of his rise didn’t gain as much traction as Scott O’Neil would have hoped for.

Carpenter also revealed the viewership the 2026 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am generated last weekend: “PGA Tour viewership from Sunday: CBS averaged nearly 3.3M viewers for Collin Morikawa’s one-shot win. Coverage peaked at nearly 5.2M. Sunday did have Winter Olympics, Daytona 500 and NBA All-Star competition. Last year: 3.3M for Rory McIlroy’s win (panel only data).”

While the viewership didn’t rise from last season, it still averaged more than 10 times what LIV Golf peaked at during the conclusion of the Adelaide event. The PGA Tour’s peak is over 15.7 times more than Kim’s victory run generated in the last two hours. Moreover, Collin Morikawa hasn’t been as popular in the golf community as Kim recently. Still, he was able to pull the viewers better than his rival from the competition.

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These were the numbers LIV Golf generated when they didn’t have to compete with the PGA Tour. However, it only got worse when O’Neil had scheduled the events to suit the American primetime.

LIV Golf’s struggle with viewership under scrutiny despite Anthony Kim’s win

Ever since he took charge, Scott O’Neil has been trying to make LIV Golf more suitable for the American audience. However, his plans have exposed the Saudi-based league’s flaws even further.

Last season, he had decided to host the Riyadh event in the evening to be suitable for the American prime time. Despite making it inconvenient for the local audience, O’Neil couldn’t generate the results he desired.

LIV Golf registered its worst viewership in Riyadh 2025. Despite being available to the audience in the United States, they only averaged about 12,000 viewers. Even after getting OWGR, retaining top talent, and making format changes, the state didn’t change much in 2026. This season, the Saudi Arabia season-opener saw an average of 23,000 viewers.

Nothing LIV Golf is trying seems to be working for them. What more can they do to make the fans tune in to their events?