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I agree in general. The one way in which the viewer will notice the pace of play is just that "it's been an hour and Nelly Korda or Scottie Scheffler have only played four holes." Or if for some reason they show a lot of shots of players just standing around when they could be showing golf shots. But I think Andy Johnson said it most recently/best, playing fast is a skill, too. I would love for pro golfers to play faster. You'd see the players you want to see hit more shots in the same time than they do now. So I don't disagree with the pace of play stuff, and hope they can find ways to do it. Heck, the LPGA should leap at the chance to differentiate itself in this way, IMO. So: I stand by what I said in that the TV viewer really doesn't notice much about pace of play. It's rare when they do. I support increasing the pace of play wholeheartedly. But my top five reasons don't include TV ratings or viewership.

I don't think the viewer at home can pick up on pace of play, unless the announcers mention something. The telecast has the luxury of bouncing from player to player, which ensures we the viewer always have something to watch.  I think we would notice pace of play if the camera just followed one golfer for an entire round. Or  You were actually golfing behind the slow group Or  The slow group is the last to only group left to finish the tournament.  I like the idea of having a person carrying a digital clock, following each golfer. When the golfer gets to the ball and the group in front of them has cleared they have 60 seconds or they get a penalty stroke. Maybe a second violation is a 2 stroke penalty.  Or as I have said before, every golfer wears a shock collar!!!!! at 1 min 1 second that golfer if going to drop. It will take them a good 30 second to recover, leaving them with another 30 seconds to hit the shot. The course would be littered with golfers just convulsing on fair way from an endless cycle of shocks because they cant seem to hit their ball and keep pace of play. 

This isn't the same thing.  This is entirely a time of year thing. Not a trend.  This is the COVID year.  There are many who think the Masters viewership was actually way up. The 2024 ratings being down is only for CBS televisions. It doesn't include anyone (including me) who watched it online. 

Ha, I didn't even notice that "NFL competition" part… I just dismissed it on face because pause has very little if any role in TV ratings.

Wait a second. That is a bit misleading to drag a 4 year old headline about the ratings when the Masters was delayed during the pandemic. The 2024 ratings were down but not to the extent that this headline would imply. Also, @iacas is correct. Any ratings drop has very little, or perhaps, nothing to do with pace of play.