Open Championship Ratings Up 15% from 2008

Tom Watson's meteoric run at Turnberry didn't bring in the same number of eyeballs that would be watching when Tiger Woods wins majors, but he was good enough to give the Open Championship at 15% hike over last year's win by Paddy Harrington over Greg Norman.

Sports Media Watch reports that the Sunday overnight was 3.9.  That was better than last year's 3.5, but worse than the 4.1 for Harrington's 2007 win.  SMW puts it into perspective:

To put the 3.9 in perspective, the men's final at Wimbledon drew a 4.2 overnight earlier this month. Additionally, the 3.9 for the British Open is lower than the overnights for several non-major PGA events this year, including the Arnold Palmer Invitational (4.9), AT&T National (4.6) and Players Championship (4.1).

Getting up at 8am to watch golf will do that to somebody.  Now you understand why the USGA likes their Opens to finish in primetime.

In the Open, a Woods win means a rating of 5.0 or better.  That's why TNT and ESPN put all of their eggs in the Tiger basket.