No Shock Here: British Open Final Round Rating is Low

Considering the circumstances surrounding the final round of this year’s British Open at St. Andrews, perhaps we shouldn’t be all that surprised that there weren’t exactly a ton of people tuning in. Actually, yesterday’s final round of action, which saw Louis Oosthuizen pull away from the rest of the field for a 7-stroke victory, drew the lowest rating, a 2.6, for a final round in British Open history. Probably not what some golf enthusiasts wanted to hear, but this isn’t surprising either.

Seriously, you can come up with numerous reasons as to why no one watched on Sunday. It was on a cable network, which isn’t as big a deal as it use to be, but you still lose viewers as opposed to having the final round live on ABC. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were nowhere to be found in terms of being in contention. And it was fairly evident at the start of the final round that no one was going to catch Oosthuizen.

Needless to say, this made for a very anti-climactic day of television for golf fans. Usually in golf tournaments, we have several different storylines that hold our attention throughout the week, but in this case, the only story was Oosthuizen himself. His dominance was really the only thing that golf fans could latch on to in the final few days of the event, and one player running away from the field usually isn’t too good on the final TV ratings.

Sure, had it been Tiger out there stomping the rest of the field, people would have watched. That’s not a knock on Oosthuizen, it’s just common sense. I would venture to say that a lot of hardcore golf fans didn’t know much about Oosthuizen heading into this event, so there’s no way that the average golf fan who tunes in just to watch the big tournaments had any clue about Oosthuizen’s story.

Luckily though, champions aren’t made from good storylines. They’re made from great golf. While ESPN may not enjoy this final number, Oosthuizen could care less. He’s a major champion, and people definitely know who he is now.