It’s the golf offseason for most of the country, but on the PGA Tour, it’s the eighth event of the season. The 2017 golf year begins in its traditional spot — the outrageously gorgeous island of Maui. The Plantation Course at Kapalua is a little quirky, a par-73 built into the side of a mountain, but it may be the most uniquely beautiful venue on the entire schedule.
How to watch the SBS Tournament of Champions live online, TV schedule, radio, and more
Let’s watch some primetime golf.
While the SBS Tournament of Champions is slotted into its regular spot on the first full weekend of the year, the PGA Tour season is already well under way. The Tour has continued its “wraparound schedule” device, which has made seven fall series events official tournaments that count towards the following year’s schedule and race for the FedExCup. The season actually started way back in mid-October. The tournaments count and there’s lots of money doled out and FedExCup points on the line. But for all intents and purposes, this is the start of the season. We had a holiday layoff and now we hit the full-time week-to-week schedule.
The Maui setting provides the PGA Tour and its broadcast partners one of the rare opportunities for primetime golf. There’s an occasional West Coast major in the summer and those offseason events around different parts of the globe, but we almost never have golf push into the primetime window during the regular season. Even this West Coast swing in the first quarter of the year limits the ability for primetime coverage back in the east because of the limited daylight this time of year. Hawaii, however, offers that opportunity and Golf Channel and NBC will take advantage.
The first two rounds on Thursday and Friday will have a slightly expanded coverage window, spanning four primetime hours. Many of the Golf Channel broadcasts of the first two rounds run three hours, save for the bigger marquee events. They will be live by 6 p.m., however, for those first rounds with Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson going out in the last twosome of the day at 5:50 p.m. ET on Thursday. Expect to see just about every shot from that duo. There are just 32 players in the field so it’s a manageable production.
On the weekend, Golf Channel’s sister network, NBC, will get involved with early coverage of the final two rounds. Their Saturday coverage will precede NBC’s primetime NFL Wild Card game. In the past, the Tour has made this a Friday-through-Monday event to try and get their own buzz and finish in a slot that’s not totally overwhelmed by the NFL playoffs. But that had its own challenges with the NCAA title game often taking place that Monday night. So we’re back to the usual Thursday to Sunday schedule.
Here are your coverage options for the week in Maui (All times ET):
Thursday’s first-round coverage
Television:
6 to 10 p.m. — Golf Channel
11 p.m. to 3 a.m. (Replay) — Golf Channel
Online streams:
6 to 10 p.m. — Golf Channel simulcast stream
Radio:
4 p.m. — PGA Tour Radio on Sirius-XM (Ch. 92/208 and streamed here)
Friday’s second-round coverage
Television:
6 to 10 p.m. — Golf Channel
11 p.m. to 3 a.m. (Replay) — Golf Channel
Online streams:
6 to 10 p.m. — Golf Channel simulcast stream
Radio:
4 p.m. — PGA Tour Radio on Sirius-XM (Ch. 92/208 and streamed here)
Saturday’s third round coverage
Television:
4 to 6 p.m. — NBC
6 to 8 p.m. — Golf Channel
9 p.m. to 1 a.m. (Replay) — Golf Channel
Online streams:
4 to 8 p.m. — NBC Sports/Golf Channel simulcast stream
Radio:
3 p.m. — PGA Tour Radio on Sirius-XM (Ch. 92/208 and streamed here)
Sunday’s final round coverage
Television:
3 to 5 p.m. — NBC
5 to 7 p.m. — Golf Channel
8 p.m. to Midnight (Replay) — Golf Channel
Online streams:
3 to 7 p.m. — NBC Sports/Golf Channel simulcast stream
Radio:
2 p.m. — PGA Tour Radio on Sirius-XM (Ch. 92/208 and streamed here)
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