The Absence of Nelly Korda, Lexi Thompson, and Other A-Listers Forces American Women to Face Cruel Reality Check
The U.S. Women’s Open viewership statistics are available. However, it won’t win over Mollie Marcoux Samaan, the LPGA Commissioner. The broadcast’s final round on NBC saw 943,000 viewers, a sharp decrease of 637,000 from the 1.580 million viewers it attracted the year before.
Remarkably, the U.S. Women’s Open last year had the most viewership in nine years. Even on NBC, the peak audience for women’s golf was the highest at 2.2 million.
This time, there were greater hopes. It was assumed that the national major would take advantage of a good opportunity since the PGA Tour was visiting Canada and LIV Golf was not hosting any events. In addition, the LPGA has already seen a spike in content demand.
According to a recent survey by Golf Digest, 11.5 million interactions occurred per week on the LPGA’s social media and TV coverage measures. In 2022, almost triple that of 4 million.
Conversely, the U.S. Women’s Open takes a different stance. 204,000 watched the second round on USA Network, a 39% decrease from the previous year. 825,000 people watched the moving day on NBC, and Sports Media Watch reports that the show received a 0.54 rating. That is also a 24% decrease from the previous year.
There were several reasons for that. Perhaps none, though, more so than the unexpected departures of the LPGA’s brightest prospects. Many well-known LPGA players were unsuccessful in securing a weekend reservation at the harsh Lancaster Country Club. Furthermore, by Sunday, the remaining stars had finally lost their momentum.
Nelly Korda had carded ten on the par-3 12th, and her campaign was virtually gone. The 14-time LPGA Tour winner had to leave early, despite her best efforts to make up for it with an incredible second round.As was Lexi Thompson, who, ahead of her 18th consecutive US.
announced her retirement at the end of the season in the Women’s Open. With rounds of 75 and 78, the former major winner—possibly in her final dance at the national major—failed to make an impression.
But, Lydia Ko’s attempt to become the first woman to win the LPGA Hall of Fame is still on hold despite her 13-under par first two rounds. Rose Zhang failed to make the cut despite showing promise in her U.S. Women’s Open debut last year with a T9. Allisen Corpuz, the reigning champion, also did.
Andrea Lee and amateurs were pushing the envelope for American players in their absence.Following two outstanding rounds, Asterisk Talley, a 15-year-old amateur and the youngest player in the field, caught everyone’s attention. But Yuka Saso, a Japanese golfer, outlasted all of them, even Minjee Lee, who appeared certain to win her third major.
With 100 Rolex Running Points, Saso shot up to No. 6 in the world rankings, having started the week ranked No. 30. Before her victory in Pennsylvania, the 22-year-old had only one victory, which came at the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open.
Saso’s best-ever performance in the interim was at the KPMG PGA Championship in 2018, where she finished solo second, one stroke behind China’s Ruoning Yin.
To be fair, despite Saso’s second significant victory, the Japanese child had not yet made the same impression on the public as someone like Lexi Thompson or Nelly Korda. The figures reflect that opinion.
