• by Wayne Friedman , April 9, 2010

There was plenty of interest from golf fans when Tiger Woods played at the Masters -- but it did not set any groundbreaking overall sports record as some had predicted.

ESPN said its live coverage of the 2010 Masters Tournament on Thursday averaged a Nielsen preliminary 4,936,000 viewers, making it the most-viewed golf telecast in cable history.

This would surpass the 2008 U.S. Open Championship playoffs on Monday, June 16, 2008, where 4,762,000 viewers tuned in to watch Tiger Woods defeat Rocco Mediate on ESPN.

ESPN says the 4.9 million viewers' number is a gain of 47% over last year's Thursday coverage of the Masters, which landed at 3,366,000 viewers.

Live coverage of the Masters Tournament on ESPN's digital video platform -- ESPN3.com -- had a nearly ninefold increase among unique viewers over last year's first round.

The overall interest in Woods also boosted up ESPN's main "SportsCenter" news show.

Nielsen preliminary ratings showed that on Thursday, the "SportsCenter" live show from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., which included live coverage of Tiger Woods' first tee shot at 1:42 p.m., averaged a 0.8 household rating, more than doubling last year's rating for the same one-hour window, which came in at a 0.3 rating.