This is it. This is what we all wanted. After five years wandering in the wilderness, Tiger Woods is back in contention at a major championship. He has a late Sunday tee time. He has a chance to win.
Tiger Woods has a chance to win a major. Really. Here are your nuts and bolts details for Sunday.
Tiger has a chance to win a 15th major and that’s all you could ask for following the mess of the last five years. Here are your nuts and bolts details for Sunday.
Thomas J. Russo-USA TODAY Sports
Tiger will tee off in the third-to-last group on Sunday at the British Open, starting a good four shots behind a trio of leaders at 9-under. Tiger lit up the sports world on Saturday with a 5-under round of 66. He got aggressive after two days of hanging back, and it resulted in three straight birdies around the turn. It also led to Tiger, for a moment, holding a share of the damn lead late on the weekend at a freaking major championship. It was not a drill.
Bagging a 15th major championship will be a tall task. He’s never won one coming from behind the talent ahead of him, and all around him, is immense. Jordan Spieth, the defending champion, is one of those three leaders and looks to have his form back as he works his way around the linksland. Spieth is a heavy 3/2 favorite to repeat with 18 holes to go. To give you an idea of what kinds or run he needs to have, here’s some work from the brilliant minds at Data Golf:
Tiger will tee off at 9:25 a.m. ET alongside Francesco Molinari. That’s the same Italian stallion that Phil Mickelson played with five years ago when he shot a final round 66 to erase a five-shot final round deficit and win his Open Championship. Here’s the bottom of your tee sheet:
- 8:35 a.m.: Charley Hoffman, Adam Scott
- 8:45 a.m.: Austin Cook, Justin Rose
- 8:55 a.m.: Zach Johnson, Tommy Fleetwood
- 9:05 a.m.: Rory McIlroy, Matt Kuchar
- 9:15 a.m.: Alex Noren, Webb Simpson
- 9:25 a.m.: Tiger Woods, Francesco Molinari
- 9:35 a.m.: Kevin Kisner, Kevin Chappell
- 9:45 a.m.: Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth
This is also what every network and rights partner could ever want. Tiger in contention playing his full final round in the coverage window, chasing a young star like Spieth. NBC will have the reins on this Sunday, their third as the broadcaster of the oldest major championship in golf. After the USGA took the FOX money and ran, NBC was left without a major. They had been the U.S. Open partner for years, but needed to fill a gap and went for the Open as those rights came up for negotiation. So now we get Johnny Miller providing nuclear grade commentary across the pond instead of at the U.S. Open, where he once shot a 63 at Oakmont to win.
NBC will be live at 7 a.m. ET and take us home to the finish right around 2:30 p.m. ET. The R&A does a fantastic job of keeping the players on pace at their major championship. The rounds almost never exceed four hours. On Saturday, we saw the twosomes all roll with a pace around around 3:45 and 3:50. So unless there is some crazy 30-minute drop and recovery shot sequence like last year with Spieth, we should be done before 2:30 with the Jug presentation shortly thereafter.
Here’s your media schedule for the final round at The Open:
Television:
- 4:30 a.m. to 7 a.m. — Golf Channel
- 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. — NBC
Online streams:
- 4:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. — Golf Channel/NBC simulcast stream
- 4:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. — “Spotlight” coverage
- 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. — 3-hole stream focusing on Nos. 8 to 10
- 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. — Marquee groups stream
Streaming Service:
Radio:
- 4 a.m. to 3 p.m. -- SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio (Ch. 92/208)
See More:
