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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:
Thursday's Day 1 coverage
Television:
1 to 6 p.m. — Golf Channel
Online streams:
1 to 6 p.m. — Golf Channel simulcast stream
Radio:
Noon to 6 p.m. — PGA Tour Radio on Sirius-XM (Ch. 93/208 and streamed here)
TEE TIMES
And here's your lineup for the afternoon in Jersey:
Session 1 — Five Foursomes Matches — 1:05 p.m. ET Thursday
- 1:05 p.m. ET — INTL Hideki Matsuyama/Charl Schwartzel vs. USA Rickie Fowler/Justin Thomas
- 1:17 p.m. ET — INTL Adam Scott/Jhonattan Vegas vs. USA Dustin Johnson/Matt Kuchar
- 1:29 p.m. ET — INTL Si Woo Kim/Emiliano Grillo vs. USA Jordan Spieth/Patrick Reed
- 1:41 p.m. ET — INTL Louis Oosthuizen/Branden Grace vs. USA Daniel Berger/Brooks Koepka
- 1:53 p.m. ET — INTL Jason Day/Marc Leishman vs. USA Kevin Kisner/Phil Mickelson
