Golf

How to watch the Arnold Palmer Invitational live online, TV schedule, radio and more

There’s no Tiger anymore, but we still get the best field of what’s left on the schedule before the Masters. Here’s how to watch for the week at Bay Hill.

by Brendan Porath

Mar 19, 2014, 7:00 PM UTC

Sam Greenwood

The 2014 Arnold Palmer Invitational took a big hit on Tuesday night when the defending champ, Tiger Woods, announced that he was withdrawing this week due to persistent back spasm problems. The Florida swing started as a month of pre-Masters prep for Woods, but it turned into a disaster quickly beginning at the Honda Classic, when the back issue that flared up last August reappeared. The injury affected him throughout an ugly week at Doral, and then Tuesday he decided to play it safe and back out of one of his most favorite annual stops.

The tournament namesake and host at Bay Hill will always give this event a bit of extra publicity and starpower, but losing Woods obviously takes the momentum out of what is one of the highlights of the pre-Masters schedule. The tournament still has big names like Adam Scott, Bubba Watson, and Justin Rose, but it won’t be the same without the sport’s biggest draw and moneymaker. One party hit hard by the news Woods was bowing out is the TV partners, NBC and Golf Channel, who continue their Florida swing coverage this week in Orlando. With CBS on their annual March Madness break before the Masters, Johnny Miller takes the mic along with Dan Hicks. With Tiger gone, at least Johnny won’t have to work out the telestrator as he did last year.

Tiger with a loud f-bomb and Johnny Miller puts the telestrator to use pic.twitter.com/sXm67Mmxzu
— Brendan (@BrendanPorath) March 25, 2013

Just like the Honda Classic and Doral, NBC and Golf Channel, sister networks under Comcast, will provide additional coverage throughout the week at Bay Hill. When the weekend arrives, we won’t have the half-hour blackout break each day as we wait for the coverage to transfer from GC to CBS. We’ll also have the third week of Golf Channel’s spotlight coverage, a broadcast that runs concurrently with the regular NBC golf coverage and highlights a few specific holes with stats and TrackMan data surrounding the screen. It’s a good option to take in at times, particularly for fans interested in the developing analytics around golf and how the popular TrackMan data works.

In addition to that TV coverage, there will also be two regular streaming options running each day. PGATour.com puts their @Live coverage back into play this week with their featured holes stream going almost all day on the par-5 12th, with supplemental coverage of Nos. 16 and 18. Golf Channel and NBC will have their usual simulcast stream up and running each day via LiveExtra.

So no Tiger this week, but it’s still the best pre-Masters field and the most comprehensive coverage you’ll get until Augusta. Here are all your media options for the week at Bay Hill.