BMW Championship 2014: Tee times, pairings for Saturday’s round at Cherry Hills

Saturday sets up as the best round of the 2014 FedEx Cup so far, with a loaded group of stars anchoring the tee sheet and trying elbow their way to the top of a clustered leaderboard. Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia will play together in the final pairing, with Ryan Palmer as the third wheel. Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler, and Jordan Spieth are some of the other top names playing in the final few groups.

McIlroy and Sergio have had plenty of time to get acquainted over this second half of the summer, and the Spaniard would have a win or two, including possibly a major, if not for Rory. Garcia was the main challenger for Rory on Sunday at the British Open. And then two weeks later, Rory played in the final pairing with Sergio and quickly erased a multi-shot deficit to Garcia before running away with the WGC title at Firestone.

Sergio will again start this weekend out in front, but this time his two-shot lead is only at the midpoint of the tournament so it’s even more tenuous. Garcia shot a second round 64, tied with Palmer’s number as the lowest round of the tournament so far. The highlight of his round came on the 7th hole, where he dunked one in for eagle from 126 yards out in the fairway.

Garcia, Palmer, and McIlroy are set to go off No. 1 at 1:20 p.m. ET.

The third leg of the postseason is the first no-cut event of the FedEx Cup. The tournament starts with just 70 players, which is the minimum amount that make the cut at a normal PGA Tour event. So all 70 still have a realistic, albeit slim for many, chance of making the TOUR Championship in Atlanta. The tour will continue to keep the field in groups of three off split tees, condensing the tee times to a two-hour period where every player in the field is out on the course at the same time.

With NBC taking over the coverage from Golf Channel on the weekend, the start times will be much earlier for the third and fourth round. The smaller field didn’t start play until after 1 p.m. for the first two rounds as Golf Channel went live from 4 to 8 p.m. ET, taking advantage of the rare time difference at a tournament out west this late in the season. Obviously, NBC is not going to have the golf run right up to their Sunday Night Football broadcast for the final round, so play will be pushed up on each day this weekend, targeting a 6 p.m. finish for each round. The first group will be out at 11:30 a.m. ET, and 9:30 a.m. local out in Denver.

Here’s the full tee sheet for Saturday’s third round: