Deutsche Bank Championship 2014 live stream: How to watch online, TV coverage and more

The Deutsche Bank Championship is the only tournament on the PGA Tour schedule that starts on a Friday. With that unorthodox scheduling, the TV coverage changes a little bit too. Golf Channel will have their customary broadcast of the first two rounds, but it’s rare for them to carry sole coverage on a Saturday afternoon. It’s not a bad play by the Tour and the DBC, utilizing Labor Day for an extra weekend day of golf on a a weekend where the start of the college football season should dominate.

Golf Channel will also expand their usual broadcast window for Friday afternoon, going live at 2:30 p.m. ET and carrying coverage for a full four hours. That’s an extra hour than normal, but with Golf Channel/NBC holding all the rights to the remaining FedEx Cup postseason, we’re going to get expanded and comprehensive coverage down the final stretch.

The Deutsche Bank is one of the better, if not the best, tournament of the postseason. The field isn’t yet so small that there’s little to show if the big names get knocked out or out of contention, but it’s still a tight field of 100 players on a course that often yields rounds in the mid-to-low 60s. We saw Phil Mickelson make a run at breaking 60 here last season, and since that birdiefest at Valhalla, we’re obsessed with getting faster-paced golf with birdies coming in waves. This long but gettable course should provide that again this weekend.

If you’re stuck in front of a computer late on Friday afternoon heading into Labor Day weekend, Golf Channel will have their simulcast stream up and running on their LiveExtra service. The afternoon session should heavily feature Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, and Rickie Fowler, the three big headliners on that side of the draw for the opening round. Mickelson may need to grind this week to stay in the top 70 and get to Denver. It’s likely he makes the third leg, but his TOUR Championship prospects look bleak unless he puts a run together in one of the next two weeks.

The No. 1 player in the world, unfortunately, will play his first round well before the broadcast goes live. This is is the second straight week that Rory McIlroy will be done with his opening round before the TV coverage comes on the air, but Rory won’t play out of view of the camera. He’ll again be the focus of PGATour.com’s “featured groups” stream and that is scheduled to be up and running by 8 a.m. ET, a full 80 minutes before Rory’s 9:20 tee time. Rory may still be No. 1 in the world rankings, but he’s now No. 2 in the FedEx Cup standings. Hunter Mahan’s win last week at The Barclays shot him into the top spot. But keeping with FEC custom, the top three in the current standings will play together through the first two rounds. So Rory and Hunter will be paired with Jimmy Walker on Friday morning in that featured groups stream. Here’s the full media schedule for the opening round at TPC Boston.

2:30 to 6:30 p.m. -- Golf Channel

2:30 to 6:30 p.m. -- Golf Channel simulcast stream

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