We suppose you could file this one under "Duh," but, according to SportsMediaWatch.com, TV ratings for the last three PGA Tour events -- Pebble Beach, the Northern Trust Open and the Accenture Match Play Championship -- have dropped significantly from early in the season.

After a good start to the season, the last six professional golf telecasts on broadcast TV have had double-digit declines in overnight ratings. Sunday telecasts in particular have declined by 43 percent (Pebble Beach), 37 percent (Northern Trust) and 24 percent (Accenture) over the past three weeks.

Of course, before Pebble Beach, weekend golf ratings were off the chart as viewers tuned in to watch Phil Mickelson's win at the Phoenix Open (up 65 percent) and Tiger Woods's win at the Farmers Insurance Open (up 85 percent). The downward trend continued at the Accenture Match Play Championship last weekend after Woods and Rory McIlroy lost in the first round. (Mickelson didn't play the event.) 

Coverage of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship earned a 1.9 overnight rating on NBC Sunday afternoon, down 24 percent from last year (2.5), but up a tick from 2011 (1.8).

Last year, McIlroy made it to the finals against Hunter Mahan. This year, Matt Kuchar beat Mahan in the finals. According to SportMediaWatch, the Kuchar-Mahan match got the third-lowest Sunday rating ever for the tournament. The only two lower-rated Sundays were in 2011 (Luke Donald vs. Martin Kaymer) and 2010 (Ian Poulter vs. Paul Casey).

Photo: Tiger Woods at the 2013 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines (Robert Beck/Sports Illustrated).

The Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale is so much fun that NBC Sports and Golf Channel are going to broadcast it twice.

The two networks are partners, both owned by corporate daddy Comcast, the cable giant. Golf Channel usually covers the early weekend golf before switching over to NBC Sports for the 3-6 p.m. Eastern time finish.

This weekend, however, Golf Channel will stay on the air from 3-5 p.m. Eastern to cover the action on TPC Scottsdale’s 15th, 16th and 17th holes while the regular NBC telecast with Johnny Miller [right] is on the air. The par-3 16th is one of the most famous par 3s in golf due to the wild and raucous crowds who cheer -- or boo -- every shot. Here's part of the press release:

While NBC is on the air live from 3-6 p.m. ET this weekend with traditional coverage, Golf Channel also will be on the air live with its Spotlight coverage, but focusing only on the challenging stretch that encompasses the 15th, 16th and 17th holes. The 15th hole is a par 5 that can be reached in two, making eagle chances well within the realm of possibility. The 16th hole is the famous par 3 – known as “The Coliseum” – which is completely surrounded by as many as 20,000 rowdy spectators and creating a raucous atmosphere akin to a football game. And, the par 4 17th hole can be reached from the tee, but several greenside hazards pose interesting choices for gambling pros. Golf Channel’s Spotlight coverage will conclude at 5 p.m. ET each day, when viewers will be directed to the final hour of NBC’s third- and final-round coverage.

Here’s a helpful schedule if you’ve got an itchy clicker-finger. And the Super Bowl starts at 6:30 p.m. Eastern.

Thursday 4-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel live traditional coverage)

Friday 4-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel live traditional coverage)

Saturday 1-3 p.m. ET (Golf Channel live lead-in coverage)
Saturday 3-6 p.m. ET (NBC live traditional coverage)
Saturday 3-5 p.m. ET (Golf Channel live Spotlight coverage)

Sunday 1-3 p.m. ET (Golf Channel live lead-in coverage)
Sunday 3-6 p.m. ET (NBC live traditional coverage)
Sunday 3-5 p.m. ET (Golf Channel live Spotlight coverage)

[Photo: Getty Images]

Live network coverage of the PGA Tour is coming soon to a laptop or smartphone near you.

The PGA Tour announced Tuesday that it would offer a live stream of the CBS Sports' telecast of the Farmers Insurance Open this weekend and continue to simulcast PGA Tour events online for the rest of the season. Visitors to PGATOUR.com and CBSSports.com will be directed to a co-branded video player to watch live streaming of CBS Sports’ third-round telecast on Saturday (3-6 p.m. ET) and fourth-round telecast on Sunday (3-6:30 p.m. ET). The live streaming this weekend also will be available on PGA TOUR platforms as well as CBS Sports and CBS SportCaster applications for the iPhone, Android and iPad. CBS also will have a mobile web-based player available at m.cbssports.com.

Golf Channel and NBC Sports coverage will also be available online at next week's Waste Management Phoenix Open, although only people whose cable companies carry the Golf Channel will be able to watch the Golf Channel's coverage online. NBC Sports' broadcasts -- like the CBS Sports broadcasts -- will be available to all Internet subscribers in the United States. The online streaming will not be accessible overseas.

All Golf Channel, through TV Everywhere availability, and NBC telecasts also will be streamed throughout the 2013 season, with Golf Channel available to multichannel video subscribers, and NBC’s weekend coverage of 12 FedExCup tournaments fully available beginning with next week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open. Golf Channel is televising the early rounds for all 30 FedExCup tournaments on NBC and CBS, as well as all four rounds for six tournaments.

CBS Sports also covers the Masters, which does its own streaming on the Masters.com website and the tournament's associated apps.

“This is a significant milestone in the PGA Tour’s digital history,” PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said in a written statement. “We are excited to work with CBS Sports to bring live PGA Tour action online, and look forward to continuing our efforts with CBS, NBC and Golf Channel to develop ways golf fans can access live coverage of the PGA Tour from wherever they are.”

Memo to PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem: Send Rory a fruit basket. And one for Tiger, too.

The commish should be thanking his lucky -- and compelling -- stars for this year's TV ratings, which were way, way up over last year across all channels that broadcast the Tour, according to Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal.

Just how big a jump are we talking? Check out the chart that accompanied Karp's article below:

For NBC, the 3.42 million viewer average for weekend rounds marks the highest since their current contract began back in 2007. That contract gives NBC weekend coverage of some of the Tour's biggest tournaments, including the Memorial, the Players and, of course, the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Those were made for more compelling television this year than last, when Tiger Woods missed three months of the season, and the Woods/McIlroy rivalry/lovefest wasn't relevant atop the tour.

All that aside, somewhere you just know Johnny Miller is saying, "You're welcome."

If we learned one thing about golf fans from our 30-odd hours of live blogging the Ryder Cup, it's that commercials make them mad. Aggressively, vociferously, and quite expressively angry.

Tough to blame them. Apparently, NBC's coverage irked some members of the media, too. Specifically, Bradley Klein of Golfweek, who went so far as to catalogue the limited rotation. Upset with the "stop-start coverage," and the "six or seven" breaks an hour, Klein counted commercials and golf shots.

His informal tabulation: 362 golf shots played to 164 commercials aired. Yeah: 2.21 shots per commercial. Got to keep the lights on somehow.

Klein, though, doesn't stop there. Because, you know, if you have a variety of commercials to keep the mind guessing, it's OK, right? Here's his roundup of the most played:

NBC Network Programming: 31
Omega Watches: 16
Get Golf Ready/Tee It Forward/Play Golf America: 13
Cadillac: 10
Mercedes: 10
National Car Rental: 10
Samsung Galaxy: 9

On the plus side, only one Five Hour Energy Commercial. Prescient: They wouldn't want their product associated with Jim Furyk's 4.5-hour Sunday round.

Related: PGA Tour Confidential: Was it a Europe in, or U.S. collapse?

Related: Sports Illustrated's best shots from Medinah

At least someone in the New World is happy with yesterday's Ryder Cup results.

NBC, which broadcast the event stateside, reported on Twitter Monday morning that singles ratings saw a 71% jump over America's 2010 defeat. Sunday's ratings are the Ryder Cup's highest in the U.S. since 1999, when the (formerly) historic rally at Brookline brought the Cup westward.

Here's what their PR department has to say:

Sunday #RyderCup on NBC draws 4.1/9 overnight. Up 71% from '10 (2.4/7), up 21% from '08 (3.4/7) and best since '99 (6.3/15 at Brookline).

— NBCSportsPR (@NBCSportsPR) October 1, 2012

So, NBC must be thrilled, even if fans aren't thrilled with their purgatorial commercial loop. Go ahead, try to find a fan after yesterday who is not immediately repulsed by Notre Dame-Miami's "classic" rivalry, the dubiously-titled "Chicago Fire," or the idea of "renting from National." Go ahead, Business Pro, I challenge you.

RELATED: Europe stuns U.S. with final-day comeback

PGA Tour Confidential: Did Europe win it, or U.S. lose it?

Photos: Best shots from Sunday at Medinah

NBC Sports apologized for editing out the phrase “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance in its introduction to the broadcast of Round 4 of the U.S. Open on Sunday.

The omission caused an immediate outcry on Twitter, with at least one post suggesting that people boycott NBC advertisers over the video introduction, which cut between children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and U.S. soldiers raising an American flag on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

NBC Sports announcer Dan Hicks apologized for the omission later in the broadcast.

"Earlier we began our coverage of this final round just about three hours ago, and when we did it was our intent to begin the coverage of this U.S. Open championship with a feature that captured the patriotism of our national championship being held in our nation’s capital for the third time. Regrettably a portion of the Pledge of Allegiance that was in that feature was edited out. It was not done to upset anyone and we'd like to apologize to those of you that were offended by it."