2015 Phoenix Open live stream: Watch Tiger Woods’ season debut online

The golf year is three tournaments old already, but the season really starts on Thursday at the Phoenix Open. There have been some notable and exciting moments early in the year, but this is the debut of Tiger Woods, and at a tournament he’s not had on his schedule in 14 years no less. With Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth and others in attendance, the opening round at TPC Scottsdale is the first time this year where golf will be a headliner.

The Phoenix Open, of course, doesn’t need Tiger Woods to make or break the event. It already has its own identity as the wildest, loudest, and most crowded PGA Tour event on the schedule. It set the record for the highest attendance ever on the PGA Tour last year, a mark that is sure to be shattered in 2015 with the Super Bowl crowds and Tiger in town. More than 583k showed up for the four-day event last year, and according to ESPN’s Andy North, the event received 200,000 more ticket requests after Tiger committed.

Woods will start his year in the afternoon wave at TPC Scottsdale, teeing off with Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed at 2:07 p.m. ET. Golf Channel’s official broadcast is not set to come on the air until 3 p.m., but you should expect to see many of Tiger’s shots from those early holes on their pregame show. Woods will be going off No. 1 instead of No. 10, so the crowd should be fully hydrated by the time he gets to the loudest hole in golf, the par-3 16th. The hole will be at capacity, which is estimated around 20,000 fans occupying the grandstands and skyboxes that fully enclose the hole. Tiger authored the most famous moment in the hole’s history, when he aced the par-3 back in 1997 and then proceeded to raise the roof.

That was back when it was a more organic party, and the crowds immediately showered the entire tee box with beer and litter. The crowds will be much larger on Thursday, and given the years since Tiger’s last appearance here, another hole-in-one might shut the course down on the spot.

If you’re not one of the lucky ones taking Thursday off at this party and stuck in an office in some frozen part of the country, you can dream and watch online in a couple different ways for the first round. Golf Channel will have their usual simulcast stream up and running via their LiveExtra service. But in addition to that, for the first time this year, PGATour.com will have a “featured holes” stream online. As you’d expect, that stream will focus largely on the 16th, with additional coverage of the 12th hole.

Here are all your media options for the opening round:

3 to 7 p.m. — Golf Channel

3 to 7 p.m. — Golf Channel simulcast stream

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