Arnold Palmer Invitational 2018: Time, TV schedule for Tiger Woods on Sunday

The windfall for the PGA Tour and its broadcast partners continues on Sunday at Bay Hill. One week after delivering the biggest Sunday rating in years, Tiger Woods is back with a late final round tee time at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Woods will tee it up at 1:30 p.m. ET alongside Bud Cauley. He’s inside the top 10 and well inside the full TV coverage window, which begins at Noon on Golf Channel. Last week, Tiger teed off in the penultimate group in Tampa 15 minutes later than he will today. He spent much of the round hovering near the lead, and even held a share of the lead early in the day. The result was the entire sports world’s eyes turning to a typically sleepy PGA Tour event and delivering its biggest non-major rating since 2013. The Sunday number went over a 5 — that’s the language they use for these things, and while I don’t follow it closely, I’m told it’s a monster number. It was far and away the highest rated sports event on TV last Sunday.

It’s unlikely Golf Channel and NBC will match that number again this Sunday. Tiger is not as close to the lead as he was last week in Tampa and there’s also the little matter of NCAA tournament games going on up against the golf. While Tiger is tied for 10th, he’s also five shots off the lead and there’s a loaded set of players between him and that leading number. Henrik Stenson holds the lead at 12-under, but Bryson DeChambeau is just one back. Rory McIlroy, whose game has been absent in four previous PGA Tour starts, is making noise again and he’s just two shots back of Stenson. Also ahead of Tiger are Rickie Fowler and Justin Rose, two of the elite players in the game. So beyond Tiger, this is a loaded leaderboard that will be hard to chase down and pass.

NBC is back on the call for the finale this week. They’re in the middle of a five-week stretch that’s one of their stronger spots on the schedule. There are majors and The Players coming later in the year, but this Florida swing, and now Texas two-step, are some of the more critical pre-Masters events. It’s when people start to pay attention to golf, maybe catch a peek outside the corner of their eye. Tiger changes that dynamic too, of course, and puts it front and center when he’s contending.

Golf Channel will have the first couple hours of coverage before handing it off to NBC at 2 p.m. ET. Johnny Miller made his 2018 season debut with NBC on Saturday and he immediately made an impression with an anti-weightlifting bit on McIlroy. Miller will be back for more on Sunday. Here’s the full coverage schedule for Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational:

Noon to 2 p.m. ET — Golf Channel

2 to 6:30 p.m. ET — NBC

10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. — PGA Tour Live featured groups/holes coverage

Noon to 6 p.m. -- Golf Channel / NBC Sports LiveExtra simulcast stream

1 to 6:30 p.m. — PGA Tour Radio on Sirius-XM (Ch. 92/208 and streamed here)