A dramatic final round of the U.S. Open delivered the top audience in 11 years for an East Coast edition of the tournament.
Sunday’s final round of the U.S. Open from Pinehurst (N.C.) averaged a 2.8 rating and 5.9 million viewers on NBC (5.55 million per Nielsen, plus additional streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics) — marking the most-watched final round of an East Coast U.S. Open since 2013 (seven telecasts). Compared to the previous East Coast edition from The Country Club (Boston) two years ago, ratings fell a tick but viewership increased 5% from 5.27 million.
As one would expect, ratings fell 11% and viewership 6% from last year’s final round at LA Country Club in California (3.2, 5.92M).
Bryson DeChambeau’s dramatic win, in which he finished one shot ahead of Rory McIlroy, peaked with 10.8 million viewers in the 6:15 PM ET quarter-hour (11.4 million including streaming) — the highest peak audience for any U.S. Open since 2015.
It should be noted that while viewership was the highest for an East Coast U.S. Open in 11 years, the household rating was the lowest since the 2020 COVID edition — which took place on an NFL Sunday in September (2.0) — and outside of that was the lowest on record. The difference between the household rating and viewership can likely be attributed to increased out-of-home viewing.
Third round action on Saturday drew a 2.0 and 3.56 million, down a tick in ratings but up 2% in viewership from ’22 (2.1, 3.49M), and down 14% and 11% respectively from last year’s West Coast edition (2.3, 4.01M).
Overall, coverage of the U.S. Open averaged 2.89 million viewers on NBC (3.1 million including additional streaming data not tracked by Nielsen), up 13% from two years ago.
