Ryder Cup 2014 TV coverage: Schedule and start time for Saturday’s matches

Saturday at any other golf event would normally be termed “moving day,” an 18-hole opportunity to play your way into the mix for Sunday before it’s too late. But at the Ryder Cup, it’s just another two-session, eight-point march to set the stage for Sunday’s 12 singles.

The first two days of the Ryder Cup are some of the longest days of the golf year, certainly for the individuals who are doubling up and playing both four-ball and foursomes. The players this year have arrived before the sun was up in Scotland, hitting the range with floodlights aiding their sight before their early morning tee times. The first match will be off Saturday at 7:35 a.m. ET. The scene at the first tee on Friday’s opener was sort of amazing to watch, given that the crowds had started filling in the grandstands well over an hour before the first shot was struck and well before the sun had risen.

Even with those tee times first thing, the second session still doesn’t end until the sun is setting and casting long shadows across the Gleneagles greens. For the second straight day, the longer format will go first. This is four-ball, where all four players in a group play their own ball from tee to green. There’s a good amount of strategy that goes on, particularly in the order each of the two players goes when they have the honor. So given the different strategizing and that it’s a foursome, the matches can take more than five hours if they go the distance. Then there’s usually just a half-hour, at most, between the start of the second session, and we’re right back at it. The afternoon foursomes generally progress much faster because there are only two balls in play.

Because of the lengthy nature of these first two days, one network has never had sole coverage live in the U.S. from the start to finish -- until this year. The 2014 Ryder Cup is the first to be broadcast fully live in United States. Golf Channel and NBC both fall under the Comcast umbrella, and the sister networks will split the duties at Gleneagles.

A new wrinkle to golf TV coverage will be introduced for Saturday’s sessions. It’s the first time Golf Channel will use an “Alternate Shot” broadcast. This is a concurrent broadcast that runs opposite the normal coverage with the normal announcers on NBC. In the Alternate Shot, Golf Channel will show different camera and video feeds from the international broadcasts, and David Feherty will call all the action with his friends. It should be a pretty fun party and nice relief from Johnny Miller if you need it. In addition to the more light-hearted commentators, the screen is peppered with stats and info from the players’ season, the matches and their in-round performances. It’s a totally different way to watch, and due to the GC/NBC friendly partnership, it gives you multiple options at the same time.

NBC will have the normal broadcast from start to finish, as opposed to getting the normal hand-off from its cable partner midway through a weekend round. The network comes on the air at 3 a.m., just after the first two matches have gone off No.1 tee. But expect Golf Channel and its “Live From” pre-game show to have live look-ins at the start, and just show you almost every shot as if it were the broadcast. TV coverage is expected to last until right around 1 p.m., which was when Friday’s double-session ended.

Here are all your media options for Day 2 at the Ryder Cup.

3 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET -- NBC

3 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. -- Golf Channel’s “Alternate Shot” coverage

Other streaming options

2 a.m. until completion of play -- PGA Tour Radio on Sirius-XM (Ch. 93/208)