It appears a portion of golf fans who tuned into NBC’s coverage of the U.S. Open on Sunday were miffed before McIiroy got to the first tee.

In its opening, NBC’s feature captured the patriotism of the national championship being in our nation’s capital for the third time.

The feature interweaved the Pledge Allegiance with military and golf-related bites. Nothing wrong with that! However, “under God” was left on the editing floor.

“Regrettably, a portion of the Pledge Allegiance that was in that feature was edited out. It was not done to upset anyone and we’d like to apologize to those of you who were offended by it,” said NBC’s Dan Hicks.

If it was a decision to leave it out, it was an odd one. How could it not have been the decision of a producer? Or was it someone’s artistic choice?

Reports note that the outcry was fast and furious, negative and immediate.

The viewing percentage of adults watching golf on television without Tiger dips dramatically. When Tiger plays on Sunday in a major the rating is anywhere from 5.0 to over 9.0. Without Tiger the rating falls drastically. That held true again on Sunday. The 4.5 rating NBC garnered was the lowest final round rating ever for a U.S. Open, despite the epic play of Rory McIlroy.

So if an all-time record low number of viewers watched, than is it fair to ask just how significant was the number of upset viewers?

In a PC (politically correct) world, where it seems people are offended because they think they’re supposed to be as opposed to actually being offended… has this whole controversy been overplayed?

Whoever decided to leave out under God…probably made a bad decision and may have already lost their job. But based on the ratings, watching golf on a beautiful Father’s Day afternoon appears to have been the less popular, more offensive decision.

Filed under: Grand Ledge, Lansing Waverly, Thad on Sports