CBS earned a 4.6 overnight rating from 3:00-6:45pm ET yesterday for the final round of the PGA Tour AT&T National, which Tiger Woods won by two shots over Bo Van Pelt. The rating is up 188% over a 1.6 overnight for last year's tournament, which was won by Nick Watney. Woods did not play in that tournament due to injury. Yesterday's ratings do not include DC, where the tournament was played, as well as Philadelphia, Baltimore and Columbus because of severe weather (THE DAILY). In Tampa, Tom Jones writes CBS yesterday did "spectacular work" during the tournament. Woods' second shot at the 12th hole "had to be hit while he stood against a tree." Before Woods hit the shot, CBS microphones "picked up him telling spectators to be mindful that his 9-iron might snap and flay at them when it hit the tree." Woods hit a "great shot, and CBS's super-slow motion replays captured how the 9-iron flexed almost into the letter U and rode up the side of the tree." Meanwhile, Jones notes because of the severe storm and resulting debris prior to Saturday's third round, spectators "were kept away, leaving the players playing in front of almost no one." It was "weird listening to just a smattering of applause when someone hit a superb shot or sank a long putt." Jones: "Know what was welcome, however? Not hearing a numbskull yell 'Get in the hole!' as soon as a golfer hit his tee shot on a long par 5" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 7/2). In N.Y., Phil Mushnick writes, "Watching golf Saturday from Congressional on CBS was kinda neat." Mushnick: "No fools screaming 'Get in the hole!', 'You da man!' or 'Ty-grrrrrr!'" (N.Y. POST, 7/2).
