Players Championship 2013: Tee times, TV schedule for Thursday

The PGA Tour returns to Florida this week for the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach. It all gets underway early on Thursday, and there’s plenty of storylines to pay attention to.

Matt Kuchar is the defending champion, and last year’s win was the biggest of his career. He finished at 13-under, besting Ben Curtis, Rickie Fowler, Zach Johnson and Martin Laird, all of whom come in two strokes short.

But there’s plenty of talent entering this year’s tournament, considered by many as golf’s unofficial “fifth Major.” All 10 of the top-10 players in the world will be in action, including world No. 1 Tiger Woods, who hasn’t won the tournament since 2001.

As stated, it all starts early on Thursday morning. The first groups will tee off at No. 1 and No. 10 at 7:15 a.m. ET. Television coverage of the tourney will run on the Golf Channel for the first two days, beginning at 1 p.m. and running through 7 p.m., before picking up again for another replay three hours at 9 p.m.

NBC will then take over coverage on Saturday and Sunday from 2 p.m. through 7 p.m. on both days. The marquee pairing on Thursday has to be the pairing of Woods, Kuchar and Brandt Snedeker. The three tee off No. 1 at 1:49 p.m.

Below, we’ve got the full tee times for Thursday’s opening round.

Morning wave off No. 1:

Morning wave off No. 10

Afternoon wave off No. 1:

Afternoon wave off No. 10:

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