British Open scores for new carrier NBC

Henrik Stenson won his first major tournament at The British Open.

Hotly contested sporting events always draw more viewers than blowouts, and that was the case for NBC’s British Open coverage.

The final round of The Open on NBC averaged 4.9 million total viewers, according to Nielsen, the most-watched Open telecast since the final round in 2009 on ABC. Sunday’s telecast was also up 46 percent from last year’s final round, which took place on Monday.

Golf fans were no doubt interested in the outcome of what turned into a two-horse race between Phil Mickelson and eventual winner Henrik Stenson.

This was NBC’s first year airing The Open, which had been on ESPN since 2009.

In other sports ratings:

- NBC had success with The Open, but sibling cable network NBCSN struggled with NASCAR last weekend. The network’s telecast of a Sprint Cup race from New Hampshire averaged 3.3 million total viewers, down 10 percent from last year and 23 percent from two years ago.

It was the least-watched summer New Hampshire race since at least 2000, according to Sports Media Watch. The site says this was the 10th race this season to hit multi-year lows in ratings and/or viewership.

- CBS’s LPGA Tour coverage on Sunday posted a 0.9 overnight rating, the second-best overnight rating of the season. That was behind only the final round of the U.S. Open, which posted a 1.0.

Tags: british open, cbs, lpga, nascar, nbc, nbcsn, sports ratings