J.J. Spaun Made The Putt Of His Life—But His Performance Didn’t Bring In Viewers

The U.S. Open had everything: an iconic venue, thick rough, fast greens, weather chaos and a 72nd-hole putt to win it all.

But it didn’t have the one thing majors can usually count on: large viewership.

J.J. Spaun’s victory at Oakmont featured the longest made putt of the entire tournament, on the final hole, to win his first major.

Yet the 2025 U.S. Open final round drew just 5.4 million average viewers.

That’s the lowest Sunday audience for a U.S. Open since the COVID-disrupted 2020 tournament at Winged Foot.

Weather didn’t help

A 96-minute rain delay pushed back the final stretch of holes and that’s possibly where some viewers were lost.

Most of the big names were already out of contention, it started raining and people were busy with Father’s Day.

The viewership peaked at nine million late in the day but dropped from there. It’s a tough break given the outstanding performance we witnessed.

How the U.S. Open ratings stack up against the PGA and Masters

While we were looking through these stats, we had to look back at the first majors of 2025 to see what those numbers looked like. It’s pretty easy to see that when there’s a Grand Slam on the line people tune in.

The Masters peaked at nearly 20 million viewers on Sunday. Historically, the U.S. Open draws more viewers than the PGA Championship and that trend continued in 2025. Last year’s Open Championship—the only major left on the 2025 calendar—averaged just over three million viewers during the final round.

We’ll see if 2025 brings more drama and more eyes to the final major of the year at Royal Troon.

Final thought

It’s hard to write a better script than a walk-off putt on the 72nd hole of a U.S. Open. Regardless of how many people were watching on Sunday, J.J. Spaun is now a household name and a U.S. Open champion.

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