The Barclays 2014 live stream: How to watch online, TV coverage and more for Sunday

It’s the last week of August, which means football is almost here. And that means CBS is transitioning over to the NFL and saying goodbye to golf for the rest of the year. Both CBS and NBC carry most of the big golf events on the calendar. but it’s probably CBS that would be considered the flagship network of the PGA Tour. But there’s only so much air time, and golf isn’t competing with the NFL for broadcast time or for Jim Nantz, so NBC will take over for the final three legs of the FedEx Cup.

TV coverage will start an hour earlier than normal for most of PGA Tour events, with Golf Channel coming on the air at Noon. They will have their usual 90-minute broadcast leading into the network coverage on CBS. When splitting duties with NBC, there’s usually more comprehensive coverage because the two both fall under Comcast umbrella. Golf Channel even sometimes runs a concurrent “spotlight coverage” broadcast on a couple holes while NBC has the normal coverage. When splitting with CBS, however, there’s less mixing and the switchover isn’t as seamless. There’s actually a half-hour blackout period as the graphics and announcers get changed out. This often occurs just as the leaders are playing their first four or five holes, but with coverage expanded on Sunday, CBS will be live right before the final pairing of Jim Furyk and Jason Day tee off at 2:05 p.m. ET.

In addition to this being CBS’ final broadcast of the year, this is also probably the last Sunday of the year where golf will have a chance to capture a significant audience. Next week’s Deutsche Bank Championship is before the start of the NFL season, but that will be played on its traditional Friday-to-Monday schedule, the only time all year we have a pre-planned Monday finish. The last two legs of the FedEx Cup, the BMW Championship and TOUR Championship, go head-to-head with Sunday NFL football, and we know how that goes. At least NBC gets the Ryder Cup at the end of the month, which should finish in Scotland right before kickoff on Sunday in the USA.

So this is one of the last big chances for a nice Sunday audience, and there are definitely some bigger names inside the top 25 capable of winning the FedEx Cup opener. Rory McIlroy is five shots back, so he’ll need to go super low just to make it interesting. It’s hard to see him keeping the streak alive, less because of the margin to make up but more because of all the top class names between him and the leader. It would require a lot of players stalling out of coming back to the Ulsterman. He’ll be out right after noon, so expect his every shot to be shown on the early portion of the broadcast on Golf Channel.

If you’re unable to watch on TV, a simulcast of all the TV coverage on both Golf Channel and CBS will be available through their respective streaming services. Here’s the media schedule for Sunday’s final round of The Barclays:

12 to 1:30 p.m. -- Golf Channel

2 to 6 p.m. -- CBS

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