Can The 151st Open Championship beat last year’s record attendance of 290,000 fans?

The 151st Open Championship has started at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club. Just like last year, the attendance of fans at the venue seems immense.

According to the Open official website, last year, the tournament recorded the highest attendance of fans which was 290,000 at St Andrew's from July 10 to 17, 2022, in its long history.

A Twitter account named PGA TUOR reportedly claimed that the spectator counts in the last practice round was 84,328, whereas the LIV Golf's most attended event had 23,482 fans count.

Here is the tweet for the reference:

Today’s practice round at The Open had 84,328 fans.

LIV’s most attended event of the year had 23,482 fans.

pic.twitter.com/aFmf18ZNyJ

However, certain no official numbers of attendance in the practice round of The 151st Open Championship are present on the internet. Also, some reports claim that LIV Golf's most attended event, the Washington DC event, reportedly had over 40,000 fan attendance. Therefore, we do not give assurance about any such claim.

So, the big question that complies is can the 151st edition of the world's oldest golf major pull out the largest crowd attendance? The answer to this question will just be a probability of 50-50.

According to an article by Sports Illustrated, The 151st Open Championship is projected to surpass the previous record in England. As the venue, Royal Liverpool Golf Club has increased its size slightly from 7,312 to 7,383. The tournament has a projected fan attendance of 260,000.

The fans were out in force on the first tee to show their support to @Matthew_Jordan7. pic.twitter.com/hmHBZSngCJ

The best reported numbers of the Open in England also came at the Royal Liverpool, back in 2006. As per Golf Monthly, a total of 230,000 spectators were present when Tiger Woods lifted the Claret Jug that year.

When and where to watch The 151st Open Championship?

Not everyone can visit the Royal Liverpool Golf Club to watch The 151st Open Championship live on television and digital streaming platforms.

TV Schedule

Fans in the United States can watch the first two rounds of the event on the USA Network's television channel and the last two rounds collectively on the USA Network and NBC.

Here is the schedule for US fans (all times in ET):

Thursday, July 20

4:00 am to 3:00 pm - USA

Friday, July 21

4:00 am to 3:00 pm - USA

Saturday, July 22

5:00 am to 7 am - USA
7:00 am to 3:00 pm - NBC

Sunday, July 23

4:00 am 7:00 am - USA
7:00 am to 2:00 pm - NBC

For fans in the United Kingdom, they can tune into Sky Sports Golf channel to watch the live broadcast of The 151st Open Championship.

Here is the schedule for UK fans (all times in GMT):

Thursday, July 20: From 6:30 am - Sky Sports Golf
Friday, July 21: From 6:30 am - Sky Sports Golf
Saturday, July 22: From 12:00 pm - Sky Sports Golf
Sunday, 23rd July: From 11:00 am - Sky Sports Golf

Digital Streaming

The digital live-streaming rights for the major tournament are with Peacock and the USA network. Fans can tune into the app or their respective website to watch the broadcast.

Peacock, NBCSports.com, and NBC Sports App will also digitally stream the featured groups and featured holes of the event.