Keegan Bradley's BMW Championship win pulled 2.44 million viewers, a sharp drop from numbers during last year's Viktor Hovland's win: Reports

Keegan Bradley won the recently concluded 2024 BMW Championship held at Castle Pines Golf Club. The second of three FedExCup playoffs was held from August 22 to 25, 2024 in Castle Rock, Colorado.

Bradley was always in contention and had a one-shot lead going into the final round. He claimed the 2024 BMW Championship by one shot over Adam Scott, Sam Burns and Ludvig Aberg.

A recent report by Sports Business Journal's Josh Carpenter suggests that the viewership in the tournament has gone down from last year's BMW Championship when Viktor Hovland won it.

Carpenter said that NBC received 2.446 million viewers on Sunday which is almost a 20 percent reduction from last year's count of over three million on CBS.

The BMW Championship isn't the first tournament which has seen a large drop in viewers this year compared to last year. In the 2024 Masters tournament, a 20 per cent drop was seen in the viewership for the final round. The tournament received the lowest ratings since 1993, excluding the COVID-19 Masters tournaments in 2020 and 2021.

Signature events like the Arnold Palmer Invitational also saw a 30 per cent drop in viewership in the final round. The 2024 Players Championship's final round saw a 15 per cent down in viewers from 2023. The final round viewership of the 2024 Phonix Open also fell by 30 per cent from last year.

Experts say that Scottie Scheffler's dominance this year is one of the reasons for the falling viewership. Some attribute the low viewership to the weather disruptions, the absence of Tiger Woods and a lack of compelling storylines.

Recently, in 'The Smylie Show', Billy Horschel talked about how Signature events need more than 70 players as viewers need to be engaged with more storylines. Horschel further said that the best storylines would be David vs Goliath ones as underdog stories are captivating to viewers. He said that even the Goliath vs Goliath storylines can be equally rewarding. He further said (via 'The Smylie Show' on YouTube):

"And listen, when you have Goliath versus Goliath, it's awesome like you did at the US Open Championship with Rory and Bryson and Patrick Cantlay and everything," he added. (55:05-55:12)

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2024 BMW Championship Prize Money Payout

Keegan Bradley won a prize money of $3.6 million from the total purse of $20 million for the tournament. Sam Burns, Ludvig Aberg and Adam Scott will each take $1,503,333 after being tied for second at the BMW Championship.

Scottie Scheffler won $119,667 for being tied for 33rd while Xander Schauffele won $728,750. Sahith Theegala who finished 48th at the tournament won $70,000. Here's the 2024 BMW Championship prize money payout to the 50 players who participated in the tournament:

• 1 Keegan Bradley, -12, $3,600,000
• T2 Sam Burns, -11, $1,503,333
• T2 Ludvig Åberg, -11, $1,503,333
• T2 Adam Scott, -11, $1,503,333
• T5 Cam Davis, -8, $728,750
• T5 Tommy Fleetwood, -8, $728,750
• T5 Si Woo Kim, -8, $728,750
• T5 Xander Schauffele, -8, $728,750
• T9 Chris Kirk, -7, $580,000
• T9 Alex Noren, -7, $580,000
• T11 Rory McIlroy, -6, $500,000
• T11 Sungjae Im, -6, $500,000
• T13 Tony Finau, -5, $344,111
• T13 Shane Lowry, -5, $344,111
• T13 Byeong Hun An, -5, $344,111
• T13 Will Zalatoris, -5, $344,111
• T13 Sepp Straka, -5, $344,111
• T13 Tom Hoge, -5, $344,111
• T13 Patrick Cantlay, -5, $344,111
• T13 Taylor Pendrith, -5, $344,111
• T13 Wyndham Clark, -5, $344,111
• T22 Billy Horschel, -4, $229,000
• T22 Russell Henley, -4, $229,000
• T22 Corey Conners, -4, $229,000
• 25 Brian Harman, -3, $197,000
• T26 Denny McCarthy, -2, $177,500
• T26 Viktor Hovland, -2, $177,500
• T28 Matt Fitzpatrick, -1, $160,000
• T28 Max Greyserman, -1, $160,000
• T28 Collin Morikawa, -1, $160,000
• T31 Thomas Detry, E, $142,500
• T31 Nick Dunlap, E, $142,500
• T33 Max Homa, +1, $119,667
• T33 Matthieu Pavon, +1, $119,667
• T33 Christiaan Bezuidenhout, +1, $119,667
• T33 Jason Day, +1, $119,667
• T33 Scottie Scheffler, +1, $119,667
• T33 J.T. Poston, +1, $119,667
• T39 Justin Thomas, +2, $102,000
• T39 Stephan Jaeger, +2, $102,000
• T41 Davis Thompson, +3, $94,000
• T41 Adam Hadwin, +3, $94,000
• T43 Aaron Rai, +4, $86,000
• T43 Cameron Young, +4, $86,000
• 45 Akshay Bhatia, +5, $80,000
• T46 Eric Cole, +7, $74,000
• T46 Austin Eckroat, +7, $74,000
• 48 Sahith Theegala, +11, $70,000