How to watch the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational live online, TV schedule, radio and more

There’s still a month of summer left but the PGA Tour’s last big event of the regular season tees off this week in Akron. The annual swing to Firestone Country Club is the final WGC event on the schedule, and always draws a world-class field for some final prep, and guaranteed money, before the PGA Championship next week. The Tour, of course, doesn’t have control or rights to the season’s final major, leaving just two events on the schedule before the FedExCup begins in three weeks.

Aside from The Players Championship, the WGC circuit features some of the Tour’s marquee properties. The Tour has a stake in and controls the rota, which now features the annual Match Play event, the stops at Doral and Firestone, and a fall event in China. The WGC-Bridgestone, however, is probably the best of them all, with almost every qualified player showing up and all the international guys making the trip to the States with the PGA coming the next week.

And like Doral, this is an event that Tiger Woods has historically dominated. He’s won at Firestone eight times, and just like at Doral, he’s the defending champ here this year. Tiger, however, enters the 2014 Bridgestone Invitational in much different circumstances, playing just his third event since that early March start at Doral and desperately needing a big result just to make the FedExCup. Even though he has almost no reps, and he’s not considered a threat to win, this is exactly the kind of venue where he could put four good rounds together and get some momentum heading into Louisville next week.

Tiger will definitely play four rounds this week, as this WGC title is a limited-field no-cut event. That can be good and bad for Woods. On one hand, he needs as many guaranteed competitive rounds as possible — he missed the cut in his first start back at Congressional and made it on the number with a birdie putt on his last hole at the Open. On the other hand, humbly playing out the string isn’t always an ideal or enjoyable weekend for the most competitive player in the history of the game. That’s what happened after a long layoff at Firestone in 2010, when he shot 75-77 on the weekend to finish in second-to-last place at 17-over. At an event he’s owned and loves so much, he spent Sunday disinterested and hitting an array of embarrassing (for Tiger) shots. That also just happened late on Sunday at the Open, where he was last seen spraying shots, cursing and slamming his clubs. So sometimes it’s not always fun to make the cut if you’re the most dominant player of a generation.

Photo credit: Joe Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports

This is also the start of a huge two weeks for CBS, their biggest non-Masters stretch of the season. They’ll have broadcast rights for the next four weeks, finishing the season at The Barclays. But the WGC backed up by a major is the height of their summer coverage, and Tiger may not even be around for that first FedExCup event in New Jersey. So expect Jim Nantz, Nick Faldo, David Feherty, and the CBS group to be fully worked up for their last hurrah of the season.

Golf Channel will have the coverage of the first two rounds, extending their normal window (three hours) to a full five hours on Thursday and Friday. The networks will then do their usual split on the weekends, with that annoying half-hour break in coverage so the CBS graphics can be loaded in and everyone can shift into position. In addition to the TV coverage, there will be multiple streams to follow online. Both Golf Channel and CBS will have simulcasts running of the TV broadcast, and PGATour.com will have a featured holes stream through the first two rounds and a featured groups stream on the weekend. The coverage is not as comprehensive as when Comcast sister networks Golf Channel and NBC cover the more important Tour events, but you should still be able to see everything you want either on TV or online.

Here are all your media options for the week in Akron:

1:30 to 6:30 p.m. — Golf Channel

1:30 to 6:30 p.m. — Golf Channel simulcast stream

1 to 7 p.m. — PGA Tour Radio on Sirius-XM (Ch. 93/208)

Noon to 1:30 p.m. — Golf Channel

2 to 6 p.m. — CBS

Noon to 1:30 p.m. — Golf Channel/NBC Sports LiveExtra simulcast stream

Noon to 6 p.m. — PGA Tour Radio on Sirius-XM (Ch. 93/208)