Since the 2023 Ryder Cup, the golf world has shared its grievances about poor coverage of the events, and it seems those issues have followed even at the Royal Troon. The best players from around the world are tackling the last men’s major and eyeing the decorative Claret Jug, but the fans are unable to fully enjoy the 152nd Open Championship.

This year, NBC has taken charge of broadcasting The Open Championship for the American audience while the country’s favorite tees up in the United Kingdom. But back-to-back commercials interrupting the Open’s stream have left golf fans exasperated with the coverage. Even during the broadcast of the PGA Tour’s first event of the season, the Sentry said, There were more “commercials than golf shots.” 

Even at the U.S. Open, NBC faced technical difficulties. At that time, the audio and visuals from Pinehurst No. 2 could not be broadcast, and fans took to their social media handles, complaining about NBC’s lack of preparation for such an issue. Fans faced identical issues at the Open Championship, whether it was the huge commercial load or the commentary. They had enough with all the fiascos. All of this made this user complain, saying, “NBC should be ashamed of themselves. This is the worst coverage of a major tournament I’ve ever seen, with more commercials than golf.”

Other golf fans joined in as they shared the grievance on X (Former Twitter) in hopes that after years of feedback from the fans, NBC might improve its coverage of golf events.

Netizens call out NBC over subpar coverage of the Open

Other than commercials running the experience of the golf fans, the spectators had also complained about the camera focusing on only a few golfers or missing crucial shots. This was an issue even at the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup, but it seems that the solution still isn’t in sight. Thus, this fan, annoyed with the coverage, said, “NBC is incapable of showing more than four golfers.”

As the Open Championship is being held at the home of golf, the commercials the viewers are getting commercials related to Scotland. Which might be a way to promote the Scottish culture to the deeper part of America through the game of golf. Moreover, to enhance the fan’s experience of watching the Open from their homes, NBC decided to lower the commercial by 70 minutes and show 90 seconds more golf per hour, mostly for the morning broadcast.

However, despite the changes, seeing the constant promotion instead of the event has left this fan frustrated. They tagged NBC and told them, “I despise watching any major golf tournament on NBC! So much for reducing commercials by 70 minutes. The Open Championship is basically an infomercial for products and services along with promoting tourism for Scotland, with very little live on-course play. You suck!” Another resembled a similar feeling and was over the bad coverage of NBC. They said, “The coverage of the open is terrible! These hacks couldn’t cover a 3rd grade sack race!!”

The dropping viewership has been a threat to the major event in the 2024 season, as the Masters witnessed around a 20%  decline in audience retention from last year as it was streamed on NBC. On the other hand, the PGA Championship was broadcast on CBS and saw an increase of 10% in viewership. Hence, fans were fed up with NBC’s poor system and this fan even found a bug, which turned them away from the broadcast. They said, “NBC is showing the Open Championship live right now, but they have a “previously recorded” bug on the lower right of the screen. Why? I’m following the live scoring on PGATour.com and it is identical to what NBC is showing.”

As is well known, the Links golf course is vastly different than any other golf course on the PGA Tour or LIV Golf’s schedule. Thus, even the top stars like Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Aberg, and Bryson DeChambeau could not conquer Royal Troon and missed the cut. Hence, the commentators usually praise the links golf course over the course. But that doesn’t sit well with this user. They said, “Some of the guys on nbc make pga tour courses sound boring when they’re praising links golf.. Idk if they realize that or not.” 

As it is the last major of the year, NBC will have a year’s time to improve on the coverage woes as the fans share their complaints. Hopefully, by 2025 when the Open Championship tees up at Portrush, the viewers will have a better experience than the past few editions.