Hero World Challenge 2016: Time, live TV schedule for Tiger Woods and the field on Saturday

Saturdays are supposed to be for college football, but this first Saturday of December, add Tiger Woods to your rotation.

Tiger is the biggest draw in the history of the game when it comes to TV ratings and tournament impact. When he’s playing well, he brings in a wider audience that golf never gets, even during the majors. We saw some of that old form on Friday at the Hero World Challenge, where Woods posted a 7-under 65 to shoot back up the leaderboard of his own event.

The expectations were low this week after the longest layoff of his career. We hadn’t seen him in 15 months and the last time we did, it was the ugliest summer of his career. While December golf rarely matters to the best in the world, coming back to an event with just 18 players, the worst of which is ranked No. 38 in the Official World Golf Rankings, is a quick and easy way to have a “Tiger comes in last place!” headline. Woods, after all, is 898th in the world rankings after being away from the game for 15 months.

Tiger started at the bottom of the leaderboard on Friday, but the 7-under round puts him the middle of the pack with a Saturday tee time alongside Rickie Fowler. Those two will tee off at 12:26 p.m. ET and will be shown from start to finish on Golf Channel and NBC. The first two rounds, Tiger, the only person anyone cares about this week, started before the coverage window on Golf Channel. Their pregame show did live look-ins from the start of his round on Thursday, showing highlights and and his shots as they talked over the footage back in the studio. Friday was a little different, however, because Tiger was in last place and out first playing by himself. The first tee time and pace meant he played his first set of holes even before that pregame show could provide that same service, which is, of course, frustrating given the circumstances and hype.

We’ll have no such problems on Saturday, with Golf Channel almost a half-hour into their telecast and NBC’s Dan Hicks and David Feherty set to take over for the conclusion of the round. Here are your media options for the third round in the Bahamas:

Noon to 5 p.m. -- Golf Channel/NBC Sports LiveExtra simulcast stream