Gary Woodland’s dramatic victory in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach drew an average of 7.31 million viewers to coverage on Fox and peaked at 10.16 million viewers from 9:15 to 9:30 p.m. ET Sunday, making it the best final round performance since 2013, the network said Monday.
Fox said Sunday’s coverage was up 44% over last year, when Brooks Koepka won his second consecutive U.S. Open, beating Tommy Fleetwood by one.
It was also the first time a final round of the U.S. Open featured Tiger Woods since 2013.
The network said it averaged 3.67 million viewers over four rounds across Fox and FS1, an increase of 28% over last year.
Fox’s coverage using drone technology was considered to be highly successful, providing angles to viewers that have not been seen in the past. Saturday’s visit to the booth by Jim Nantz was also heralded as a classy move. Overall many fans viewed the coverage to be vastly improved over previous editions on Fox. It’s the fifth year the network has carried the U.S. Open.
On Fox Sports during Thursday’s prime-time coverage, 3.46 million viewers tuned in from 7:30-10:30 p.m. ET, which the network says is the best first round coverage for a broadcast network since 2002. On Thursday evening, FS1 offered featured group coverage, which included Woods’ group as he teed off with Justin Rose and Jordan Spieth at 5:09 p.m. ET.
Here were the top markets for Sunday’s final round. Koepka’s hometown of West Palm Beach and Kansas City (Woodland is from Topeka, Kansas) made the list.
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- West Palm (8.4/15)
- Tampa (8.3/17)
- Fort Myers (8.1/16)
- Pittsburgh (7.8/17)
- Kansas City (7.8/18)
