Presidents Cup 2017 live stream: How to watch Thursday online

The PGA Tour season is officially over, but that doesn’t mean golf has packed up and gone into hibernation. The Presidents Cup tees off Thursday afternoon from Liberty National in New Jersey, one of the most scenic courses in the country and a perfect venue for this made-for-TV battle (whatever you may think of its architectural merits).

The Presidents Cup has less hype and history than the Ryder Cup, but it features the same American stars playing under many of the same formats and pressures we’re used to every other year against the Euros. We just don’t get match play that often at the highest levels of golf, and we rarely get any kind of a team format. So it’s stupid to get picky about these things -- whether it’s the Presidents Cup or the Ryder Cup or the Solheim Cup, the format is always a welcome change and usually delivers.

The American side is heavily favored to improve their overall Presidents Cup record to 10-1-1 since the event started in the mid-90s. It has a core of players who should lead these rosters for the next decade in both Presidents and Ryder cups. Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Daniel Berger — they’re all young studs and prospects who could easily populate the roster every single year. And so many of them come to this Presidents Cup in form and ready to whip an underdog international team.

This event is obviously a dramatic departure from so many ways that golf operates each week, including the TV coverage. There’s such a limited group to focus on, with only 20 players on the course on Thursday and across just five holes. The pace is more manageable and it’s hard for a player or match to get completely lost, even if it’s a blowout. If a player is in the lineup and on the course, you’re going to see him play (which isn’t always the case each week on the PGA Tour, as hundreds of angry tweets at CBS over the years would corroborate).

Thursday’s session features five matches and the format is foursomes, which is alternate shot. Each two-man team is playing just one ball, alternating shot from tee to the hole. The other two-man format is four-ball, where each player plays his own ball. But in foursomes, with only two balls in play, the pace can really move. There’s just less to deliberate over and far less shots compared to four players playing their own ball. Matches can also obviously end well before the 18th hole, lasting just a few hours as opposed to the interminable five-hour rounds that are possible during stroke play PGA Tour events.

With a limited universe to cover, there are also not the usual streaming options of a PGA Tour event. There’s no need for a featured holes stream or a featured groups stream focusing on one specific part of a massive tournament. Here, it’s really all contained in the TV broadcast, which will cover every session from the first tee ball of the first match. Golf Channel and NBC have the coverage this week, with GC taking the reins early in the week on Thursday and Friday. They will be live at 1 p.m. ET on Thursday and your one streaming option is the simulcast of that coverage. Here’s your media schedule:

1 to 6 p.m. — Golf Channel

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

Noon to 6 p.m. — PGA Tour Radio on Sirius-XM (Ch. 93/208 and streamed here)

And here’s your lineup for the afternoon in Jersey: