Golf

Farmers Insurance Open 2014 live stream: How to watch online, TV coverage and more

Tiger Woods starts the second round eight shots off the pace, but he’ll get to play the much easier course on Friday afternoon in San Diego. Here’s how to watch.

by Brendan Porath

Jan 24, 2014, 2:00 PM UTC

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODA

The PGA Tour season is officially nine events old, and the 2014 calendar season three tournaments old, but for most fans, the new year did not really start until Thursday afternoon when Tiger Woods teed it up at Torrey Pines. The No. 1 player in the world unofficially puts golf back in the discussion, even when most of the country is still frozen. Woods has always dominated the Farmers Insurance Open, winning a record eight times here in addition to the U.S. Open title on one leg in 2008. Given the scenery and starpower, the stop in San Diego does shift the PGA Tour back into the news.

More: Reviewing Tiger's sloppy 2014 debut

Tiger played his opening round of the 2014 season on the South Course on Thursday. The South is the much tougher of the two public courses put in play for the first two days of this event. It annually measures as the longest on Tour, and it was biting back during the first round. Only one player in the top 10 after 18 holes played the South, and only three in the current top 28 opened up on the more famous and challenging course.

It’s a good thing Woods now shifts to the North Course for Friday, because he has a bit of ground to make up to get back in it. He starts the second round eight shots back of leader Stewart Cink, who went real low on the North to jump to 8-under. Even though the conditions were difficult, Tiger’s game was still sloppy on Thursday. He was off with his driver, irons, and wedges during a round of missed opportunities, particularly at the par-5s, which is how he always wins this event.

Even though 75 percent of the tournament is played on the South Course, there are still cameras and crew set up to broadcast play from the North Course. Woods is set to tee off at 12:30 p.m. ET but there’s the potential that is pushed back if the Tour continues to deal with the marine layer fog that delayed the start on Thursday (and wrecked the schedule last year).

Tiger and playing partners Jordan Spieth and Jimmy Walker were out towards the back end of the tee times on Thursday, so most of their round was covered during the TV broadcast from 3 to 7 p.m. ET on Golf Channel. Because the Tour utilizes two courses, there’s no need for a morning and afternoon wave, so Woods will be out during the coverage window again, just a bit earlier with a few less holes in front of the camera. The 12:30 tee time should put him just on the back nine, around No. 10 or 11 when Golf Channel’s broadcast officially starts at 3 p.m. They do, however, have a half-hour pregame show before that and often cut in, so it’s likely Tiger’s round is shown starting around 2:30.

In addition to Golf Channel’s TV coverage, there are also two separate streaming services available. There’s the usual simulcast stream through Golf Channel’s LiveExtra service, and because this is the first event of the yearlong coverage by CBS, an additional “Featured Holes” stream can be found at PGATour.com. Here are all the media options for Friday.