British Open TV coverage 2014: Start time, schedule for Sunday’s final round at Hoylake

Rory McIlroy is 18 holes away from making some more history and winning the third leg of a career grand slam at the age of 25. On paper, it looks like Sunday’s round should be a relatively drama-free march to victory. But the British Open is the one major where the conditions and weather can knock a player down the leaderboard in just a couple holes. Rickie Fowler is the closest chaser of McIlroy, six shots back at 10-under. He doesn’t have the resume of Rory, but he can get streaky. We saw that on Saturday, when he also started six shots back of McIlroy and caught up to share the lead by No. 12.

McIlroy isn’t the kind of talent that squanders this sizable margin -- it’s usually the Jean van de Velde types that implode -- and he’s done nothing this week to make you think he has a big number in him right now. Even if it doesn’t get close, he’s one of the global superstars that ESPN can sell, much like Phil Mickelson last year. That Sunday was one of the great final rounds in major championship history, a gift to the network on top of having Tiger in contention. They don’t have as much to sell this time around, other than the crowning of Rory, but it’s still better than the last major a month ago, when the emotionless (and dominant) Martin Kaymer kept things uninteresting all weekend.

The Open is ESPN’s biggest golf event of the year. Sure, they carry early round coverage of both the Masters and U.S. Open (not anymore after 2014), but this is the one major where they are the lead network, holding sole rights for all four days and not sharing anything with another network. And, of course, they have the air space and room to provide about as many hours of coverage as you’d want at a golf tournament.

They also have some of the better announcers. Scott Van Pelt obviously has a lot of duties outsides golf, but he’s still one of the best and is a nice voice to have drop in on the sport. At the U.S. Open, he made fun of Alabama fans. This weekend, he was cracking on the idiots who yell “Get in the hole!” around the tee box of a lengthy par-4 (applicable to any par-3 too).

So hopefully if we’re just watching Rory make history, and not any actual drama regarding the outcome, at least we might get some humorous asides from Van Pelt. Mike Tirico and Sean McDonough are also two of the better anchors that we rarely get over the course of a golf season.

The first tee time on Sunday will go off at 3:35 a.m. ET, while Rory and Rickie will arrive on the first tee at 9:40 a.m. One the best parts about the Open is that you can watch the final round and conclusion and still have your entire Sunday afternoon, as opposed to the other majors that suck up your entire day. If there’s no weather delay or playoff, things should wrap up just before 2 p.m. ET.

The TV coverage will start at 6 a.m., more than an hour after Tiger Woods tees off. But ESPN has you covered there if you’re a Tiger devotee, because they’ll continue their Tiger-cam stream covering his every shot as soon as he tees off. Here’s the TV schedule and all your media options for Sunday’s final round:

6 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (or conclusion) -- ESPN

8 a.m. to conclusion (est 1:30 p.m. ET) -- ESPN Radio / PGA Tour Radio on Sirius-XM (Ch. 93/208)