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2023 U.S. Open drew monster ratings in opening two rounds

DSprofileby: Dustin Schutte06/18/23DLS1066206
us open fans
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Does a later start time to the early rounds of golf tournaments result in better ratings? That appears to be the case for this year’s U.S. Open, which brought in a massive audience during the first two rounds.

This year’s major was hosted by the Los Angeles Country Club, resulting in later tee times for players. That seems to have helped with general ratings this year, based on a press release from NBC.

Per NBC’s report, the primetime coverage (8 p.m. – 11 p.m. ET) averaged a total audience delivery (TAD) of 2.4 million viewers. The 1 p.m. – 8 p.m. coverage on USA Network averaged 1.2 million on Thursday, topping all cable programming.

The first round also resulted in NBC Sports’ most-streamed golf telecast on Peacock during the 9:40 a.m – 1 p.m. ET slot.

Success for the network wasn’t limited to Thursday. Several fans rejoined the broadcasts for Friday’s second-round action, as well.

This year’s U.S. Open became the most-watched (through two rounds) since the 2019 tournament at Pebble Beach. USA Network also delivered the most-watched second round cable coverage of the event in a decade.

With broadcasts starting later, fans are able to catch more of the coverage windows during the U.S. Open. Plus, the recent merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf probably attracted an even wider audience — even if the turnout at the actual course wasn’t that great.

It’ll be interesting to see if the late-round coverage attracted the same high-level audience as the first two days from Los Angeles.

Wyndham Clark not a fan of late tee times at U.S. Open

The late tee times might give fans more opportunities to watch this year’s U.S. Open, but not all players are fans of it. Wyndham Clark was one who didn’t care much for the late starts.

Clark pointed to issues with daylight later in the round, which caused some problems on the course.

“It’s a little ridiculous that we teed off that late,” Clark said. “I would say right around hole 15 or 16 it started getting to where you couldn’t see that well. I mean, I don’t personally understand why we teed off — we played twilight golf. At the end, it was — the last two holes I 100 percent think my bogey on 17 was because I couldn’t see, and I think Rickie’s bogey on 18 was because he couldn’t see…

“I’m not trying to make an excuse, but it definitely was a challenge. [Holes] 17 and 18, my putt on 17, I literally couldn’t see it, and we just played off of feel and how Rickie’s putt came in. And then my putt on 18, same thing… So it’s kind of tough and it’s crazy to think that we’re doing that on the last two holes of a major when we could have teed off two hours earlier. Hopefully tomorrow we don’t have that issue.”