PGA Championship live stream 2018: How to watch Friday online

The PGA Championship went according to plan on Thursday. The big hitters moved up the leaderboard. Most of the world’s top ranked players that have been playing well, played well. And there was no real drama around the course or a particular crescendo of excitement.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was how high the scores were. The prevailing opinion before the tournament was that Bellerive was going to get torn up by the best in the world. The winning score was going to pass 20-under on a wet, soft, target-golf course. Rory McIlroy said no one actually playing the course said this before the championship, but it was a common utterance off the record. The players did not feel threatened by the course or feel it was a mental challenge they needed to scout in any way.

But the scores on Thursday didn’t get out of hand. The low round was a 64, set by Gary Woodland, and the overall averages were above par on both sides of the draw.

That was maybe the only unexpected development on a rather procedural day. Friday’s scores could go lower and we could see more manic leaderboard movement now that the field has seen the full course in tournament conditions.

TNT will have the coverage again in the second round, which means there won’t be much coverage in the morning. That’s not an issue on the weekends, when the leaders and important pairings are all out later in the day. But for the first two days at a major, it’s inexcusable. The U.S. Open and British Open are live on TV from the very start. We shouldn’t have to wait until the afternoon for TV at a major when half of the superstars and field are playing in the morning side of the draw.

I went into the disgraceful nature of this current TV arrangement yesterday. The contract runs out next year and here’s hoping we get more modern broadcast windows under the new contract. I would expect it.

It’s not all bad. There will be live streams up and running in the morning. It’s two streams, confined to two featured groups. I also wrote yesterday that I’d prefer to see two groups on one stream, as they do every week on PGA Tour Live. This would limit the fluff time. No one has two separate streams going in two tabs. So you pick one, and then have to suffer through all the down time — the waiting on tees and walks up to the green while shots may be happening in the other featured group. Put two groups on one stream and toggle easily back and forth in the production truck.

It’s a useless complaint, I suppose. This is what we’ve been dealt and I guess it’s good to have any streams at all. With Tiger out in the afternoon wave and playing during that TNT TV window, there should be far less demand for streaming on Friday. Here’s your media schedule for the second round:

2 to 8 p.m. — TNT

Available on PGA.com and on mobile via PGA Championship and Bleacher Report Live app.

Noon to 8 p.m. — PGA Tour Radio on Sirius-XM (Ch. 92/208) or on PGA.com