For the U.S. Open, nothing moves the ratings needle like a West Coast locale.
The full, four-day U.S. Open from Los Angeles Country Club averaged 3.4 million viewers across NBC’s TV and digital platforms, up 27% from last year at The Country Club in Boston (2.7M), up 9% from the previous West Coast edition at Torrey Pines two years ago (3.2M) and the largest audience for the tournament since 2019 at Pebble Beach — when coverage on FOX and FS1 averaged 3.7 million. Figures are based on Nielsen fast-nationals.
Outside of 2019, it was the most-watched U.S. Open since 2015 at Chambers Bay (3.5M). Over the past decade, the four West Coast editions of the tournament — allowing for primetime coverage on the East Coast — rank as the most-watched. Since the USGA began scheduling primetime U.S. Open windows in 2008, each West Coast edition has posted an increase over the prior year (always an Eastern or Central time zone edition).
The primetime windows averaged 4.8 million across all four nights, up 25% from Torrey Pines two years ago.
Sunday’s final round averaged a 3.2 rating and 5.92 million viewers on NBC (6.2 million including additional streaming data not tracked by Nielsen), up 8 and 13 percent respectively from last year (2.9, 5.27M) and the most-watched final round since 2019 (7.31M).
As with the overall tournament, the final round audience trailed only 2019 as the largest since 2015 (6.7M). Including an additional streaming audience of 304,000 across Peacock and NBC’s other digital properties — a record for golf on those platforms — the final round averaged 6.2 million.
Wyndham Clark’s win, which averaged 8.8 million viewers in primetime and peaked at 10.2 million from 9:30-9:45 PM ET, delivered the largest golf audience outside of the Masters since Phil Mickelson’s win at the PGA Championship two years ago.
Saturday’s third round averaged a 2.3 and 4.01 million, up 11 and 15 percent respectively from last year (2.1, 3.49M) and the most-watched third round since ’19 (4.20M).
Friday’s second round was the most-watched on cable since 2013 with 1.73 million viewers on USA Network (1.76M across including streaming). NBC’s primetime window averaged 2.43 million.
(Nielsen estimates from NBC Sports PR, ShowBuzz Daily 6.24)
