Tiger Woods’ Masters Win Helps CBS Sports, Twitter Score Big Numbers


Tiger Woods’ historic victory in the Masters on Sunday helped CBS score its highest-rated morning golf broadcast in 34 years.

A forecast of rain pushed the start of the final round to Sunday morning, where CBS Sports picked up a 7.7 rating. That’s the best morning number since CBS metered market ratings began in 1986. The ratings peaked at 12.1 from 2:15 to 2:30 p.m. ET during the exciting finale.

Twitter reported that some 1.8 million tweets were sent about the Masters. Of that number, roughly 1.4 million were about Woods, meaning he accounted for more than 75 percent of all Masters tweets. This was Woods’ first Masters win since 2005 and first victory in any major since 2008. He won while playing with TaylorMade’s new M5 driver.

The top three most-tweeted moments of Sunday’s final round commemorated Woods’s highlights: his victory-clinching putt on the 18th green, his near hole-in-one on the 16th, and his birdie on the 15th to take the lead.

Fourth on the list was Justin Thomas’ hole-in-one on the 16th, and fifth was previous leader Francesco Molinari hitting a shot in the water on the 12th hole to give Woods a chance to ascend the leaderboard.

Celebratory tweets arrived from sports luminaries ranging from Stephen Curry and Tom Brady to Serena Williams and Jack Nicklaus. Barack Obama, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Hugh Jackman were among the other notables to congratulate Woods.