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Friends, there are just 72 holes left of major championship golf this year. It's a dire situation after a fantastic summer at the game's biggest events, but at least we have the next four days ahead of us. Everything has come together for a hyped edition of what has recently become the most consistently dramatic and exciting major.
The PGA Championship tees off Thursday morning from Whistling Straits and despite the waning hours of major championship golf, you will not be able to watch the first round on TV until the afternoon. While the coverage is more than the crumbs the green jackets hand out at the Masters, it's still disappointing that the first two days of a full 156-man field major championship are limited to just afternoon coverage. The U.S. Open and British Open, by contrast, had their Thursday and Friday broadcasts start at 9 a.m. local time on FOX and ESPN.
Whistling Straits
TNT makes its annual one-week foray into golf on Thursday when it comes on the air at 2 p.m. ET. They have a partnership with the PGA of America, and do some work with the Grand Slam event in the fall. But that's a silly season game with just four golfers. This is their only real golf coverage of the entire season but sometimes it's nice to get some new names and talent on the call. Ernie Johnson is always enjoyable to have cross over into golf. While TNT has some of their talent on the broadcast, the CBS crews also jump in and handle a lot of the duties.
The broadcast is set to run until 8 p.m. ET so you will get the full round of the marquee tee time at 2:20 p.m. That features Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, and Zach Johnson. The PGA always puts the season's first three major winners together but Spieth's multiple wins obviously made that impossible. So the PGA just decided to throw the world No. 1 into the group to round things out and turn up the hype for these first two days with the worlds No. 1 and 2 players together. So if you're tuning into the broadcast in the afternoon, expect to see their every shot of the first round.
The downside to the late TV start is the entire morning side of the draw will play in relative obscurity. One tee time, however, will get the spotlight of the marquee groups stream. As you might guess, that group will have Tiger Woods in it. The four-time PGA winner tees off with Keegan Bradley and Martin Kaymer at 9:15 a.m. ET, just 15 minutes after the PGA.com marquee groups stream goes live. At these major events, regardless of his form, the people want to see Tiger. So he'll be featured on the only way you can watch the tournament before 2 p.m. ET.
Here are all your TV options for the opening round:
Thursday's first round coverage
Television
2 to 8 p.m. -- TNT
★★★
SB Nation video archives: Urban golfing with a U.S. open champion (2012)