Golf

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

Let’s watch golf in the middle of the night.

Jan 19, 2017, 1:00 AM UTC

Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship - Previews

Rickie returns to Abu Dhabi to defend his title.

Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images

The European Tour’s annual swing through the Middle East is one of the highlights of the early season golf schedule. It’s one of the prime stretches on the Euro Tour schedule, too, with different appearance fees at those stops drawing deep fields that often include American superstars, who usually just play back in the States on the PGA Tour.

That Middle East swing will start Wednesday night with the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Rickie Fowler has made the jump over to Abu Dhabi and will defend his title in what is his first start of 2017. Dustin Johnson played at Kapaula in Hawaii two weeks ago but the reigning U.S. Open champ and Player of the Year doesn’t seem too worried about early season travel stress, opting to also make some good cash and play over in the Middle East this week. Henrik Stenson is the headliner on the European side along with Danny Willett, putting three of last year’s major champions in the field.

The strength of the event, however, took a significant hit on Monday, when Rory McIlroy, who finished runner-up to Rickie here last year, withdrew due to a stress fracture in his ribs. McIlroy has made this Middle East swing an integral part of his routine and he’s been successful here. His first pro career win came in Dubai, the event set to take place in two weeks. It’s likely he’ll withdraw from that tournament too, hopefully taking a precautionary route with a couple months to go before the Masters. The Rory injury, combined with Jordan Spieth opting not to return this year, are definitely a hit to the sex appeal that these Middle East events go for with the superstars. The Omega Dubai Desert Classic, however, has succeeded in securing Tiger Woods in two weeks.

The Middle East swing also provides that rare primetime opportunity to watch some of the best in the world play in an upper-tier event. Of course, it also offers a middle-of-the-night opportunity and a drive time crack-of-dawn opportunity too. That’s one of the great things about some of these heavyweight European Tour events. They get you watching golf at untraditional times, which is maybe the only time you have for it that week. Whether it’s the Scottish Open early on a Sunday morning or the Abu Dhabi Championship late on a January Wednesday night, it’s a nice change of pace from the predictable start and stop times of a season in the States.

The power players will be out in the early wave of tee times in the first round, which means Golf Channel will jump in with coverage late Wednesday night. Fowler, Martin Kaymer, and Alex Noren will tee off right at 10:30 P.M. ET and DJ, Stenson, and Willett will go 10 minutes later. The following day that cluster will be out a few hours later, meaning Golf Channel will hold on starting coverage until the middle of the night, right at 3 a.m. on Friday.

Here’s your media schedule for the week in Abu Dhabi: