Playground →
The Open's nearest ten neighbors sit within a tight 0.23-point band — from U.S. Open (USGA) at 0.98 down to Rickie Fowler at 0.96 — with no single neighbor pulling sharply ahead of the rest. That compression is the defining structural fact here.
The top 10 break down into three subcategory types: fellow Sporting Events (U.S. Open (USGA), 0.98), Athletes (Jason Day at 0.97, Jason Dufner at 0.96, Rory McIlroy at 0.96, Sergio Garcia at 0.96, Rickie Fowler at 0.96), and two Marketing Channels — David Feherty, a TV Personality at 0.97, Golf Digest as a Magazine at 0.97, Golf Channel and ESPN Golf as TV Channels at 0.96. Athletes dominate numerically, but the presence of broadcast and print channels alongside them signals that the audience overlap is organized around golf media consumption as much as player fandom. The one fellow Sporting Event in the top 10 — the U.S. Open — is the closest match at 0.98, suggesting the strongest structural pull comes from a direct peer rather than from any individual player or outlet.
This flat, golf-saturated cluster points to an audience defined almost entirely by deep sport-specific engagement, with no meaningful cross-sport or cross-category signal in the top 10.
