U.S. Open Draws Record Traffic To USGA Official Web Site
June 20, 2007E-mail address: mediarelations@usga.orgFar Hills, N.J. - Traffic on the official 2007 U.S. Open Championship Web site more than doubled from a year ago, according to the page view count released by the United States Golf Association.
Nearly 226 million pages were served by the
www.usopen.com Web site from June 14-19 (Thursday-Monday), easily topping the 107.5 million pages served a year ago.
The "U.S. Open Live" Webcast also set records with nearly 727,000 online viewers; again more than double the viewership from 2006. There was more to see as well, with 632,000 hours of live streaming video; three times the total of a year ago.
The Webcast, a feature since 2001, included three channels of cutting edge "high definition" live streaming. One channel provided full 18-hole coverage of a marquee group on Thursday and Friday. A second channel showed a simulcast of the ESPN/ NBC television broadcast, while a third channel featured live streaming of all post-round player interviews.
New features for the 2007 championship site included enhanced video offerings provided by NBC, ESPN and the USGA Video Archives, a "Ruling of the Day" and Real-Time Scoring with player biographical information attached.
In a related news service, the USGA photo archives already has supplied more than 500 free downloads for news coverage of the 2007 U.S. Open.
Network coverage on NBC also collected big numbers, with an average of 9.54 million viewers for Sunday's final round telecast from 1-7:46 p.m. (EDT). The drama of the final half-hour, in which Angel Cabrera outlasted Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods for a one-stroke victory, scored a 10.1 rating share, the best half-hour rating on any network for the week by two full rating points.
Overall, NBC's weekend coverage averaged 7.7 million viewers, a 35 percent increase from a year ago and the best weekend average since 2002.