U.S. Open Sunday Ratings Down 35%, Equaling Amount Pledge Of Allegiance Was Trimmed From Opening

But according to SBJ, they peaked at 7.4 from 7-7:30 when Rory McIlroy was finishing off his record breaking win.

Meanwhile in the brewing controversy over the telecast opening with a strange edit of the Pledge of Allegiance, the Internet is ablaze with rage after Golf Channel On NBC issues a strange statement. Cindy Boren reports.

NBC apologized — the clip also omitted “indivisible” — with Dan Hicks reading a statement during play in the fourth round at Congressional: “We began our coverage of this final round just about three hours ago and when we did it was our intent to begin the coverage of this U.S. Open Championship with a feature that captured the patriotism of our national championship being held in our nation’s capital for the third time. Regrettably, a portion of the Pledge of 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.”

That wasn't good enough for CNN's Jack Cafferty, who writes:

The original Pledge of Allegiance, of course, did not include the words, "Under God." They were added by Congress in the 1950s. As a result, they are as much a part of our salute to our flag as the rest of the words in the pledge. And it boggles the mind that a bunch of morons at NBC can take it upon themselves to decide which part to include and which part to omit. Those responsible ought to be fired on the spot.

Really?

Here's the clip: