Scottie Scheffler wins fourth major and silences critics at Portrush
Scheffler capped off an already remarkable major championship season with another brilliant showing, this time in Northern Ireland.
READ MORE: Smylie Kaufman spots similarity between Scottie Scheffler and 20-time PGA Tour winner Greg Norman
His win at Portrush followed a second PGA Championship title and a third Masters victory, bringing his total number of major wins to four.
Even though McIlroy came up short in front of his home fans, he still had reason to celebrate earlier in the year. His win at The Masters finally secured him the career Grand Slam.
Scottie Scheffler’s Open Championship TV Audience
Rory McIlroy’s first Masters win averaged 12.707 million viewers on Sunday, while The Open drew a smaller but still strong audience.
The numbers for The Open have been released, and while they didn’t reach the same heights as the Masters final round, they still showed an increase from previous years.
Josh Carpenter of the Sports Business Journal reported that NBC pulled in just over four million viewers for Scheffler’s win at Portrush, including streaming numbers.
Dan Rapaport captures what a lot of people think about Scottie Scheffler
The Open organisers will be happy with the numbers, especially since Scheffler was in control from Friday onward and never looked like giving it up.
He closed out Thursday one shot off the pace but moved into the lead on Friday, stretched it to four shots by Saturday, and kept that margin all the way to the finish on Sunday.
Rich Beem had described his play as boring during The Open, but Rapaport pushed back against that view after seeing how many tuned in. “Scheffler runaways have done pretty solid ratings this year,” he posted. “Seems more people enjoy watching greatness than find it boring…”
The talk of him being boring might stick around if he keeps winning like this, though it’s unlikely to bother him.
Shane Lowry reckons Rory McIlroy might regret calling him inevitable, but at this point, there’s not much else you can call him.
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