Previous Tournament and Round Average 0.46%
Up to 8 Times Higher Compared to LPGA, KPGA, and PGA
Highest Viewership 'Daebo HouseD Open' 0.68%
Park Min-ji is teeing off at the 2023 KLPGA Hana Financial Group Singapore Women's Open. [Photo by KLPGA]
The Korea Ladies Professional Golf Association (KLPGA) Tour held this year achieved the best ratings in terms of popularity among all men's and women's professional tournament TV broadcasts.
According to Nielsen Korea, a ratings research company, on the 20th, the average viewership rating for all tournaments and rounds of the 2022 KLPGA Tour was 0.46% (based on paid households in the metropolitan area). This rating was 2 to 8 times higher compared to all other tours such as the U.S. Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour (0.21%), the Korea Professional Golfers' Association (KPGA) Tour (0.13%), and the U.S. Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) Tour (0.05%).
In live broadcasts held during the same time slot in the first week of last month for three men's and women's tours, the KLPGA Tour also won overwhelmingly in ratings. The KLPGA 'S-OIL Championship' recorded a rating of 0.36%, which was about 5 to 11 times higher than the KPGA 'Golfzon Doray Open' (0.07%) and the LPGA 'TOTO Japan Classic' (0.03%).
The tournament with the highest TV broadcast ratings this year based solely on the KLPGA Tour was the 'Daebo House D Open' held in July at Paju Seowon Valley Golf Club. SBS Golf Channel announced that this tournament achieved a rating of 0.68%, ranking first.
This tournament attracted much attention from fans as it was uncertain whether Park Minji (24, NH Investment & Securities) would succeed in defending her title three times in a season for the first time in 40 years. Song Ga-eun (21, MG Saemaeul Geumgo) recorded a 10-under-par 62 on the first day of the tournament and achieved a 'wire-to-wire victory' (leading from the opening round to the end). Popular players Oh Ji-hyun (26, Daebang Construction) and Lim Hee-jeong (22, Korea Land & Trust) competed for the championship. Park Minji also chased Song Ga-eun until the end and finished tied for 10th place.
The highest round-by-round rating for the KLPGA Tour was 1.09% during the final round of the Jeju Samdasoo Masters held on August 7. In this tournament, Ji Han-sol (26, Dongbu Construction) staged a comeback by making four consecutive birdies from holes 15 to 18. The final round of the DB Group 36th Korea Women's Open, won by Lim Hee-jeong in June, soared to a minute rating of 2.03%, marking the 'best one minute' moment.
Meanwhile, this year's KLPGA Tour concluded its eight-month journey with the 'PLK Pacific Links Korea Championship with SBS Golf,' which ended on the 18th in Vietnam. This year's KLPGA Tour recorded the largest scale ever with a total prize money of 30 billion KRW. The 2023 season will begin with the domestic opening tournament, the 'Lotte Rent-a-Car Women's Open,' in April next year, and all tournaments will be exclusively broadcast live domestically and worldwide through SBS Golf.
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