The wind is howling on Friday at the Open Championship, presenting an entirely different test for the afternoon wave that’s getting set to tee off at Royal Liverpool. The leader, Rory McIlroy, may be out in the second wave but the headliner will still be Tiger Woods.
Watch Tiger Woods’ every shot streaming online through ESPN’s ‘Tiger-cam’
Tiger will play his second round on Friday when most of the United States is awake and at work, so ESPN will make sure you’re able to see his every shot.
The 14-time major winner will tee off at 9:05 a.m. ET back in the states, or 2:05 local in Hoylake with Angel Cabrera and Henrik Stenson. ESPN will once again put their “Tiger-cam” into effect for Woods’ second round, tracking his every shot via online stream on ESPN3/WatchESPN.
There’s been plenty of backlash and whining about ESPN devoting so much camera time to one of the 156 players in the field, but the dedicated stream is justified. We all lamented the brutal ratings hit that CBS and NBC took for the first two Tigerless majors of the year. So now that he’s back to resume his chase of Jack Nicklaus’ major championships record, why not allot extra resources for his first major of the year?
In reality, the Tiger-cam is pretty much the same thing as a “featured groups” stream that we see often at all the biggest events. The same stream covering Tiger’s every shot is also covering Phil Mickelson’s every shot, the reigning champ going out on the opposite side of the tee sheet as Tiger. And with Tiger in the hunt at 3-under, it’s not like the regular TV broadcast won’t be showing his entire round anyways.
This is a huge part of the schedule for ESPN’s streaming service, with Woods actually playing during normal U.S. business hours as opposed to Thursday’s middle-of-the-night start. Golf needs Tiger and the networks need Tiger. Casual fans only watch because of Tiger. Let’s calm down about the Tiger-cam. Here’s how to stream his second round at Hoylake:
Friday’s second round coverage
Online streams:
4 a.m. to ~1:30 p.m. ET -- ESPN3 Phil Mickelson (4:04 a.m.) and Tiger Woods (9:05 a.m.) cam, streaming every shot
4 a.m. to 3 p.m. -- ESPN3 simulcast of TV coverage, Spanish feed, and International (BBC) streams
4 a.m. -- ESPN3 featured holes stream, Nos. 13 through 15
Television:
4 a.m. to 3 p.m. -- ESPN
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