While it performed incredibly well in the United Kingdom, the final day of the Ryder Cup this past weekend didn’t get many eyes in the United States.
NBC averaged just 3.22 million viewers for Sunday’s Ryder Cup singles matches at Bethpage Black in New York, according to the Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter. That made it the least-viewed U.S. Ryder Cup Sunday since before 2000. By comparison, the last U.S. Ryder Cup drew about 3.51 million viewers when it was at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.
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Europe, on the other hand, was locked in to the Ryder Cup on Sunday — which makes sense, not only because they won the cup 15-13, but due to the fact that they entered the final day of play with a massive lead. Sky Sports said it had a record 5 million viewers watching on Sunday, which is up 45% from the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome. The weekend, it said, was the most-watched in Sky Sports history.
Now to be fair, the Ryder Cup is never going to draw a massive audience in the United States. The final day of play always goes up against the NFL, which takes a significant chunk of viewers away. Sunday was also the final day of the MLB regular season.
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But the United States’ performance over the first two days certainly didn’t help any. Europe took a dominant 11.5-4.5 lead over the Americans into Sunday’s singles matches, which marked the largest European lead after two days in Ryder Cup history. They needed just 2.5 points to retain the cup, and then gained an extra half point before play even started on Sunday after Viktor Hovland had to withdraw with his neck injury.
Though the U.S. team made a run on Sunday to suddenly get back in it, Europe escaped with the win after Shane Lowry secured the cup with a birdie on No. 18.
The win for Europe was its first on American soil since 2012, though they’ve won nine of the last 12 outings in what’s been a truly dominant stretch for the continent. The Ryder Cup will return to Europe in 2027, when it’s held at Adare Manor in Ireland. Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota will play host in 2029.
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