Golf

The Players Championship 2018: TV channel and schedule for Round 4

Sunday may not be close at TPC Sawgrass, but the coverage will feature lots of Tiger Woods and that’s always a win.

May 13, 2018, 2:00 PM UTC

Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

The PGA Tour and NBC would probably prefer it another way. Webb Simpson starting the day with a seven-shot lead at your marquee event takes a bit of the drama and interest out of the final round. Anyone, save for Tiger Woods, starting Sunday with that kind of margin would cut into the drama and interest of a final round.

But those are the circumstances for the final round of The Players Championship. Simpson is torching the strongest field in golf, getting to 19-under at the 54-hole mark. He’s not won on the PGA Tour in almost five years and now it will take an historic collapse for that drought to continue. No player has ever blown more than six-shot 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour. A six-shot lead has been blown a handful of times, but never seven. It’s an enormous cushion and one that could make this a relatively uninteresting competition early on Sunday, even with all that water trouble lurking on almost every hole at TPC Sawgrass.

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Whether NBC likes it or not, Simpson has shown no signs of slowing down. So they may have to get creative with their coverage over the final couple hours on Sunday night. There will be other players and stories to feature alongside Simpson’s, which is a legitimately good one and someone you should get behind. Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth will play together and they now have late tee times thanks to matching 65s on Saturday. Those were the low rounds of the day and it was good enough to take them from making the cut right on the number to being the fifth-to-last group out on Sunday.

Woods and Spieth are both at 8-under and will need a true miracle to contend but that’s as powerful a pairing as you could get for a Sunday at the Players. So expect to see their every shot on Sunday, especially after NBC didn’t get to televise the Saturday morning fireworks that had everyone talking.

NBC will come on the air at 2 p.m. ET. Tiger and Spieth tee off at 2:05 p.m. so we’ll be live from the very first tee ball. If you want to watch before that, PGA Tour Live will have featured groups streams up and running all morning. And if you can’t get in front of a TV, you can stream either PGA Tour Live or an NBC simulcast to watch Tiger and the leaders later in the day. Here’s your media schedule for Sunday’s final round at TPC Sawgrass: