GULLANE, Scotland – Nearly 18,000 fewer people watched Phil Mickelson’s march to the Open Championship this year than saw Ernie Els win at Muirfield in 2002.
The R&A released final attendance figures and numbers were down for the fourth consecutive day vs. 11 years ago.
Sunday this year had 29,247 people in the stands, while 31,422 saw final-round action in ’02. A total of 160,595 people entered the gates 11 years ago, compared with 142,036 this year.
R&A officials said early in the week that they were expecting 160,000 fans and hoping for 170,000.
Raising ticket prices has been blamed for some of the problem. A daily ticket is £5 (roughly $7.60) more than last year and £10 ($15.25) more than 2011.
