Pebble Beach National Pro-Am live stream: How to watch Friday’s round online, TV coverage and more

While most of the country sits cold, sad, frozen, and buried in snow, the PGA Tour is out on the Monterey Peninsula for the annual Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. It’s obviously one of the most beautiful and natural places in golf, but that doesn’t always mean the weather is preferable at this tournament. The temperatures are usually in the low-60s, but with the wind, it can actually get pretty brutal for golf. Last year’s tournament was repeatedly delayed and then finally played in nasty cold, wind, and sideways rain.

Well, there’s no such inclement weather this week. Instead, the temperatures are near record-highs, the wind is down, and the course looks absolutely perfect. Pat Perez, a California native and someone who has played the course several times, said it was the best he’d ever seen it thanks to the incredible weather.

For those of us stuck in a much colder part of the country, it was tough to watch on Thursday. The weather is supposed to stay that glorious throughout the weekend.

Given the setting, and now the weather, the venue and surrounding areas often become as big a part of the broadcast as the actual golf. We saw a ton of that on Thursday, when Golf Channel showed otters, whales, sea lions, and spent considerable time on a dog running around on the beach.

This broadcast is one of the most unique of the season. It’s a mix of pro golf shots, amateur and celebrity hacks trying to chop it around, constant shots of the course, and all the wildlife in the area. It’s also unique because only a third of the actual field is really playing in front of the cameras. With more than 300 players officially entered, the Tour needs to put three courses in use to make things work logistically. But Pebble is the namesake and what everyone wants to see. It also hosts Sunday’s final round, so all the heavy TV equipment is set up on that course for the entire week.

All the headliners at Monterey Peninsula Country Club and Spyglass Hill play their rounds in obscurity. There might be an occasional highlight or two but that’s it. This group includes John Daly, who is at MPCC for the day and starts his second round just a shot off the lead.

The third of the field that is playing at Pebble on Friday is ... pretty weak. Jimmy Walker is the top pro and the defending champ here is now arguably the best American player in the game. But there are few others at Pebble. The broadcast might feature David Duval for a little, and also occasionally show Davis Love III. But there aren’t too many familiar names in the second round group at Pebble. On top of that, the celebrities group is pretty awful too so there won’t be too many of those diversions to fill up the broadcast.

Golf Channel will once again have the coverage on Friday, with Whit Watson and Brandel Chamblee hosting from the 18th tower. They will have their usual simulcast stream up and running via their LiveExtra service so if you want to ignore work late on a Friday afternoon and stare at a pretty golf course, you can hit up that. Here are all your media options for the second round:

3 to 6 p.m. — Golf Channel simulcast stream