Interest in prime-time golf reaches record highs

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No matter where the hands on the clock may be pointing, golf will have its audience.

Midnight Madness has come to professional golf.

Admit it. How many of us golf fans -- especially us U.S. golf fans -- have been showing up at work or for our weekend foursome match a little bleary-eyed the last three weeks?

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It wasn't because we spent the night out on the town. Rather, it was because we spent our late evenings -- and part of the early morning -- on the couch watching some world-class golf.

It started three weeks ago when the Golf Channel televised live all four rounds of the Emirates Australian Open, which had attracted a marquee field because it preceded the Presidents Cup.

The Australian Open, of course, only proved to be an appetizer for the main course: The Presidents Cup, which had received extra hype because of the controversy over whether Tiger Woods should have been selected for the U.S. team. Adding to the intrigue, Woods was matched against Adam Scott (who employs Woods' former caddie, Steve Williams) on Day 1.

Never mind that the President Cup was being played in Melbourne, which is 16 hours ahead of the U.S.'s Eastern Time Zone. That meant action that was concluding live around 6 p.m. at Royal Melbourne was ending in America at 2 a.m. if you lived on the East Coast.

Who watches golf at 2 in the morning?

Plenty of us.

TV ratings set an all-time record for Day 1 of the ninth Presidents Cup, with 1.3 million viewers. Not surprisingly, the ratings peaked at 1.5 million just as the match featuring Woods-Steve Stricker vs. Scott-K.J. Choi was teeing off.

Same thing happened on Day 2, with a cable-network record of 1.5 million viewers watching. What makes these numbers more impressive is viewers knew they could watch a replayed version of the action the next morning on NBC, but they still choose to stay up late.

"The fact that this U.S. television record was set from an event 16 hours away is an especially strong signal for the vitality of golf," Golf Channel president Mike McCarley said. "We're hearing loud and clear from our passionate viewers that they love prime-time golf."

The late nights continued last week when the Golf Channel had live coverage of the OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup in China from 10:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. Those who stayed awake to the finish got to see the U.S. team of Matt Kuchar and Gary Woodland shoot a final-round 66 to win, America's first victory in the event in 11 years.

Televised coverage of golf's premier events has been creeping into prime time for more than a decade. The Masters was the first to steer the end of their championship into prime time with their early-Sunday-evening finishes, aided by the recent change to Daylight Savings Time.

The U.S. Golf Association decided to juice up their ratings when it staged the U.S. Opens on the West Coast. In 2000, ESPN became the first network to televise the U.S. Open in prime time when its telecast of the first round at Pebble Beach ended at 10:30 p.m. EDT, the second round at 11:22 p.m.

In 2008, the U.S. Open had its first weekend prime-time appearance when NBC televised the third round from Torrey Pines until 10 p.m. on Saturday and 9 p.m. on Sunday.

Those seem like small dips into the water compared with the dives of the last three weeks.

What the latest stretch has demonstrated is how much golf has become a global sport. Who knew what was once referred to as the "silly season" has become the "insomnia season."

Those who say golf coverage puts them to sleep actually have some proof, but not in the way they intended.

Yes, golf continues to change, faster than Nick Price's swing. It wasn't long ago when folks laughed at the notion of a 24-hour channel devoted entirely to golf. I mean, how many Shell's Wonderful World of Golf episodes can you watch? But golf legend Arnold Palmer, who founded the Golf Channel in 1995, was once again ahead of the curve.

Palmer knew there were enough hard-core golf fans to support the network. Eventually, he was proven correct.

Who would have thought, as recently as five years ago, we'd be up after midnight watching live action involving the world's top golfers?

It's been an entertaining if not exhausting stretch for the arduous golf fans. But I do know what I'm putting atop my Christmas wish list.

TiVo.