How to watch the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship live online, TV schedule, and more

When does the actual golf season start? Everyone has a different answer. The PGA Tour would insist that the season started back in mid-October with the beginning of their new(ish) wraparound schedule, which puts seven FedExCup events on the board before the calendar actually flips to 2016. Other, more sensible golf watchers, would argue the golf season starts with the first PGA Tour event of 2016, in that traditional starting spot of Kapalua on Maui. A more global golf mind would probably say this week feels like the start of the 2016 card because it’s the first field that includes both Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth, those post-Tiger faces that we’re told will be exchanging blows for the next two decades (perhaps a fourth group may join the battle when those two AND Jason Day play in the same place?).

The European Tour’s swing through the Middle East at the top of the year is probably its most competitive stretch of the schedule when it comes to stealing shine from the dominant PGA Tour. Massive appearance fees dropped into the lap of Tiger Woods really ignited the ascendance of these events, and that tradition continues with Spieth and Rickie Fowler, two stateside Tour mainstays playing the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. With Fowler on hand in Abu Dhabi for the second straight year, that means three of the supposed “big four” (Day excluded) will all tee it up on the Euro Tour.

McIlroy has always made this the start of his season, annually passing on the PGA Tour event in Maui and writing his goals for the year on the back of a boarding pass to the Middle East. He practices there for a week or two and then plays his first competitive rounds of the season in Abu Dhabi. He’s never won in Abu Dhabi but does have four wins in Dubai, including his first as a pro. So this has always been a pretty important stretch and place for him to start his year and I’d expect him to come out firing this week -- he’s said he thinks he can get back to No. 1 in the world before the Masters, and this would be a nice opening shot toward achieving that.

Fortunately for the TV audience back in the United States, and everywhere else really, the European Tour and HSBC Championship organizers have put Spieth, McIlroy, and Fowler together for the first two rounds. This was a no-brainer but sometimes you see an event get cute and try to put the top two names on opposite sides of the tee sheet draw. They will be just the third group off in the morning on Thursday in Abu Dhabi, which will be a primetime 10:40 p.m. ET tee time Wednesday night back in the States.

Golf Channel will have the coverage for that Wednesday night audience, coming on the air at 10:30 p.m. ET. They will carry that power trio’s entire opening round before taking a break, showing a replay, and picking up live coverage of the later tee times at 6 a.m. ET on Thursday morning. As always, Golf Channel will have a simulcast stream of all their broadcasts -- both live and replays -- up and running via their Live Extra service. So snuggle up in bed with that on your phone if you want to avoid sleep.

The early January events, on either Tour, often don’t mean much for the rest of the year but 2016 has been hyped as the year Rory returns and begins an epic battle with Jordan. The possibility of a decades-long rivalry is much less certain, but there’s hope for 2016 and at least we get to watch them side-by-side for the first time Wednesday night. Here are you media options for the opening round:

10:30 p.m. Weds to 3:30 a.m. Thurs -- Golf Channel

3:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. (Replay) -- Golf Channel

6 a.m. to 8 a.m. -- Golf Channel live coverage of 2nd wave of tee times

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (Replay) -- Golf Channel