Tiger Woods’ comeback didn’t last too long, but it was long enough for the Golf Channel to rack up record ratings.

The cable network averaged 1.7 million total viewers for coverage of the first round of the Accenture Match Play Championship Wednesday, the best in its history for any first round.

It averaged a 1.8 household rating, 50 percent better than last year’s first round.

Viewers were watching on the web as well. Golfchannel.com had 468,000 visitors, who generated 3.3 million page views.

Traffic to PGATour.com hit its second-best level ever, with 1 million unique visitors watching Woods’ first-round victory over Brendan Jones. Visitors watched 2.5 million streams of the action.

That was just behind the best day ever for the PGA site last summer, when Woods won the U.S. Open before getting season-ending surgery for a leg injury that kept him out for eight months.

NBC continues coverage of the Match Play championships this weekend, though it probably won’t see a Woods effect. The golfer, just a few weeks removed from the birth of his second child, lost in yesterday’s second round.

Meanwhile, in other ratings Wednesday, Bravo’s “Top Chef” finale drew the best viewership in its five-year history, averaging 3.74 million total viewers and 2.77 million adults 18-49.

The show finished the season 18 percent ahead of season four among 18-49s, with a 2.14 million average, and up 19 percent in total viewers, with 3.02 million.