Gary Woodland captured his first major win at the U.S. Open this weekend, beating Brooks Koepka by three shots (and the next closest competitors by six.) It was a fun tournament for viewers, and Fox was a benefactor as well, with the final round earning a 5.2 overnight rating, the best for a U.S. Open final round since 2013.
Final Round of the U.S. Open on FOX:
✔️ Best rating since 2013
✔️ Top-rated event of the weekend
✔️ Sunday night primetime win pic.twitter.com/moOtS4xUNA— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) June 17, 2019
Fox did have a few things working in its favor. The obvious: in addition to being a scenic venue, Pebble Beach hosting all0ws for a primetime finish, allowing for the widest possible audience. (CBS had sort of the inverse of that this year when weather forced final round coverage of the Masters to the morning, which somewhat depressed the Tiger Woods ratings bonanza.)
Fox also lucked out when the Raptors cleared the evening by taking care of the Warriors in Game 6; a potential Game 7 would have been last night. With the NBA finished (and the USWNT playing earlier in the day), the U.S. Open was clearly the biggest sporting event on the calendar, and viewers treated it as such. It beat the last West Coast U.S. Open (2015 at Chambers Bay) final round by a full point, and that tournament featured a Jordan Spieth-Dustin Johnson duel. (It also featured the first year of Fox’s coverage, which was much-maligned. It’s gotten a lot better since.)
In all, a very solid week for golf and for Fox.
About Jay Rigdon
Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.