How to watch the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill online, TV schedule and more

Golf fans should not delude themselves into thinking the Arnold Palmer Invitational is registering with much of the sports world this week. It’s the NCAA Tournament’s show all weekend, and every other sport is mostly peripheral noise.

With that caveat, there is a pretty delicious Friday morning tee time that should serve as a nice breakfast lead-in for folks wanting to ignore even more work before the basketball begins at Noon. Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, and Jason Day, three of the top players in the world and all projected favorites in three weeks at the Masters, will play in the same group starting at 8:11 a.m. ET. Their entire round should be done well before Golf Channel’s broadcast comes on the air at 2 p.m., but PGATour.com will have their “featured groups” stream showing their every shot.

McIlroy looked much more crisp on Thursday in his first ever start at Bay Hill. A 2-under 70 was marked by a clean tee-to-green effort, hitting almost every fairway and green in regulation. There were one or two loose swings, like a lost approach shot left into the water at the 16th that led to his only bogey of the day. But this was an improved Rory from the one who missed the cut at the Honda Classic and struggled at Doral. After Rory dominated the Euro Tour in two Middle East events at the start of the year, those two earlier Florida swing stops put a dent in some of the momentum of Rory rolling into Augusta as the king of the sport. He’ll still be the favorite at the Masters, but it sure would be nice to see him post a mid-60s round on Friday morning.

Fowler, who finished in the top five at all four majors last year -- a feat only accomplished by Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, has not made much noise in the first quarter of the season. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. He’s got just one PGA Tour win but lately, we expect Fowler to show up on the first page of the leaderboard more often at the majors and the biggest events in the sport. He tends to get lost sometimes at these regular Tour stops. Right now, the comparisons to Rory and the narrative pushing him as one of McIlroy’s top contemporary challengers is a bit unfair. But he’ll be a trendy pick all along the way this year at the major championships. Fowler is a shot behind McIlroy at 1-under and five shots back of leader Morgan Hoffmann.

In addition to that marquee group having a stream all morning, there will be the usual simulcast stream of the TV coverage in the afternoon via Golf Channel’s LiveExtra service. PGATour.com also switches the featured groups stream to a featured holes stream once the TV broadcast kicks in, so that’s another opportunity to watch golf and take yourself away from basketball. Here are all your media options for the second round:

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

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