While Rory McIlroy continues to post clues of an imminent return at the PGA Championship, the rest of the top players in the world will tee it up in Akron at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. Jordan Spieth has an opportunity to knock Rory from his No. 1 ranking with a win at Firestone, but he’ll need to make a move on Friday morning.
How to watch Friday’s WGC Bridgestone Invitational online, TV schedule and more
The PGA Tour has a new paywalled streaming service and Jordan Spieth playing one of the circuit’s biggest events early before the TV broadcast starts will be its first big feature.
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Spieth is at even-par after a sputtering opening 18. That’s five shots back of early leader Danny Lee. It was certainly not Spieth’s best round of the season, but he avoided the implosion and hung on to post that respectable 70 and stay in it with 54 more holes to play. Now a round in the 60s is likely needed to be in a good position among this world class field for the weekend.
Unfortunately, you will not be able to watch most of Spieth’s second round on Friday morning unless you’re a paying subscriber of the PGA Tour’s new streaming service. The reigning Masters and U.S. Open champ tees off at 10:25 a.m. ET and the Golf Channel broadcast will not go live until 1:30 p.m. The rounds at this event consistently come in at under four hours, so you’ll see Spieth’s last handful of holes on TV.
His entire round, however, will stream on PGA TOUR Live, a new service that is behind a $4.99/month paywall. What used to be “PGA Tour Live At” and regular free featured groups streams at these big events has now migrated to that subscription service, run by MLB Advanced Media. It officially started last week at the Quicken Loans National, but this is its first big event and Spieth playing on the stream is its biggest feature yet.
So, people will either be upset they cannot watch the most popular player going right now or either hand over the money and become a new subscriber (N.b. the Tour is offering a free trial if that’s something you’d like to, you know, test out just on Friday morning).
Once the featured groups finish, the PGA Tour Live stream will flip over to featured holes and that will not require the sub fee. That’s scheduled to transition at 2 p.m. but by then you can also watch a simulcast stream of the Golf Channel broadcast. Here are all your media options for the second round from Firestone Country Club:
Friday’s second round coverage
Television:
1:30 to 6:30 p.m. — Golf Channel
Online streams:
9 a.m. -- PGA Tour Live starts with coverage from range and opening holes
Featured Groups (PGA Tour Live subscription required)
- 10:25 a.m. -- Jordan Spieth / Zach Johnson
- 10:35 a.m. -- Phil Mickelson / Justin Rose
2 to 6 p.m. -- PGA Tour Live featured holes coverage (No subscription required) -- Firestone's 15th/17th holes
1:30 to 6:30 p.m. — Golf Channel simulcast stream
Radio:
Noon to 7 p.m. — PGA Tour Radio on Sirius-XM (Ch. 93/208 and streamed here)
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