TOUR Championship 2015 live stream: How to watch online, TV coverage and more

The Player of the Year award in golf is not all that important. Winning majors, bigger tournaments and getting to world No. 1 are all more important goals for almost every player out there. But this is the award’s time to shine. We need something to debate, to nitpick and to discuss in these waning days of what seems like an interminable PGA Tour season. It takes on an importance and weight that everyone will forget about in a few weeks.

Fortunately for the PGA Tour, and those who care about golf, there’s material to cover and resumes to parse. Jason Day is allegedly making a game of this, giving Jordan Spieth a run at an award that was presumed locked up since mid-July. Day could win his fifth event in seven starts, solidify his status as No. 1 in the world (which he earned last week), and add a $10 million FedExCup to go with his first career major championship. That’s an impressive PoY record in almost any season, but depending on how you value different wins and measure them for this award, Spieth still sits out there with a green jacket and a U.S. Open trophy.

They are first and second in the FedExCup standings and hold that much-trumpeted “control your own destiny” card this week, meaning they automatically win the entire postseason with a win at this fourth leg of the FedExCup (the top five all have this power). Given their spot in the standings, they’ll also play together again in the first round of their fourth straight event.

It’s a gift to the PGA Tour and their TV partner, Golf Channel, which will have the coverage for the entire opening round. It’s a five-hour broadcast in which you should expect to see all of Day’s and Spieth’s shots and and continuing nonstop dialogue on who should win player of the year and why. If you’re not already sick of the takes on this debate, you probably will be by Thursday evening when the coverage ends.

Football is always going to own everything on TV this time of year. Golf has no chance of competing with it, of course. So Thursday’s a nice little opportunity with Day and Spieth together, perhaps for the last time this season, playing their entire round in the coverage window before any football overwhelms the weekend. If you’re unable to watch on TV, there will be a simulcast stream of the broadcast via Golf Channel’s LiveExtra service. There’s also going to be a featured holes stream and 2.5-hour pregame show on PGA Tour Live. Here are all your options for the opener at East Lake:

1 to 6 p.m. — Golf Channel

10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. — PGA Tour Live pregame show, 1 p.m. featured holes stream at 1st/6th/18th holes

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