We’ve been hearing about Michelle Wie for nearly a decade now. Scary to think that she’s been a golf prodigy for nearly 10 years. She made headlines, finally winning her first LPGA major on Sunday at the U.S. Open, and proved her name recognition still brought some buzz to the tour.
Wie’s victory at Pinehurst led final round coverage on NBC to a 1.7 overnight rating on Sunday. Not only was that up 89 percent from last year’s 0.9 rating for the final round, it was the highest-rated final round of the U.S. Women’s Open since 2007, when Cristie Kerr won the tournament. Michelle Wie was 17 at the time.
Most notable, perhaps? That the final round of the U.S. Women’s Open drew a higher rating on NBC than the final round of this week’s PGA event on CBS. The conclusion of the Travelers Championship mustered only a 1.2 rating. Of course, despite not going up against it head-to-head, everything suffered with the World Cup in the way, and the final round of the U.S. Open was the highest-rated non-World Cup program on broadcast all weekend.
Still, a good win for Michelle Wie, and good weekend for women’s golf. Makes you wonder if Wie finally starts to put an impressive career together, if ratings will return to some of the highs the LPGA drew in Annika Sorenstam’s prime. Her victory in 2006 drew a 3.1 rating, so there’s a long way to go for Wie to match that buzz.
