04 March 2024 , 18:56
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LIV Golf drew in over two million views in the opening round of their third event of the season in Jeddah, which saw golf's forgotten man Anthony Kim make his debut on the Saudi-backed circuit.
LIV's figures have struggled to match the numbers of their rivals at the PGA Tour since forming in June 2022, but banked a surprise last Friday. According to Caffeine TV - who have recently gone into partnership with LIV - two million golf fans tuned in on their streaming site on Friday.
In comparison the league's first round broadcast over on YouTube drew in just over 200,000 views. Figures were expected to increase amid the signing of former PGA Tour star Kim.
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The American star was making his first competitive start in 12 years, having entered golfing exile following a string of injuries in 2012. The two million surge on Friday proved an anomaly, with LIV's total YouTube viewing figures across rounds two and three coming to just 234,000.
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The second and third round of all LIV tournaments are also broadcasted on the CW Network, with the Friday opening round available to stream on the network's app. The breakaway league announced their partnership with Caffeine two days prior to last Friday's opening round in Saudi Arabia.
Ahead of the trip to the Middle East, the league revealed that across the LIV Golf Plus App and YouTube streaming services total viewership across the two opening events of the season in Mexico and Las Vegas saw a 173% and 317% a year-over-year increase respectively.
Anthony Kim endured a chastening LIV Golf debut (Francois Nel/Getty Images)The excitement around last week's opening round of course centred around the returning Kim, but it turned out to be a tough comeback for the 38-year-old. He finished his first event since the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship dead-last, after shooting 16-over-across his three rounds.
“Obviously it was a rough week," he said Sunday. "I'm excited to be playing professional golf again, I feel very blessed to have this opportunity. I've got a lot to work on but I had a lot of good things go my way this week, so I'm looking forward to working on that and being in contention, for sure.
“I definitely hit the ball well. I'm doing a lot of things well, I know the scores don't reflect that and it's disappointing to score that way. But at the same time I know I have a lot to build on and I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing."