Officials at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial enjoyed a significant spike in weekend television ratings despite a dropoff in attendance from 2010 totals at last week’s event, tournament director Peter Ripa said today.
CBS’ overnight television ratings for Sunday’s final round in Fort Worth drew a 2.1 share, an increase of 110 percent from 2010’s final-round ratings. The Saturday telecast drew a 1.1 share, a boost of 22 percent from 2010.
Ripa said tournament officials were “tickled” by the ratings spike and by the fact that Colonial was the highest-rated sports telecast on Sunday afternoon. In terms of attendance, Ripa said the 2011 weekly total was 112,554, a dropoff of 15 percent from the previous year.
In calculating attendance figures, Ripa said Colonial officials count spectators at the course, not tickets sold.
The 2011 Colonial field featured only competitor ranked among the Top 10 in the world golf rankings (Matt Kuchar). By comparison, the 2010 Colonial field featured five of the world’s top eight golfers, including Phil Mickelson, as well as all four reigning major champions.
_ Jimmy Burch
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