2017 PGA Championship TV schedule: Coverage and start time for Thursday's round
Rory McIlroy is the favorite, but Hideki Matsuyama could ride a hot streak to his first major title.
Rory McIlroy has traditionally dominated the Quail Hollow golf club, winning two Wells Fargo Championships and losing another in a playoff in his seven trips to the North Carolina course. Will he still be able to master the exclusive links after extensive changes transformed the track from a Tour stop to a PGA Championship host?
Administrators at Quail Hollow shut the course down for 12 weeks prior to 2017’s final major, making changes aimed at preventing another -21 round — the score with which McIlroy won the 2015 Championship by a whopping seven strokes — from the dynamic Northern Irelander. Four new holes have been added, including a monster 540-yard par-4 that will welcome contenders as they start their round. Fairways have been narrowed, the rough has gotten rougher, and the greens have gotten bigger and faster.
All those changes should create a welcome challenge for a field that includes each of the world’s top-10 golfers. While McIlroy is the favorite, he’ll have to fend off challenges from young powerhouses like Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, and Hideki Matsuyama to win his third PGA Championship.
Spieth will tee off Thursday in one of the tournament’s most interesting groups. The 2017 British Open champion will join the season’s two other major winners, Sergio Garcia (Masters) and Brooks Koepka (U.S. Open) in an all-star triad. Right behind them will be Johnson, the world’s No. 1 golfer, along with top-10 fixtures Henrik Stenson and Jason Day. That one-two punch will make the start of the four-day tournament appointment viewing for golf fans.
This week’s PGA Championship will be fans’ second-to-last chance to watch the event in August. Traditionally the sport’s final major of the year, the tournament will be moved up to May starting in 2019. That will give the PGA Tour a quick turnaround from the Masters to the season’s second major, ensure that no more than a month goes by between the game’s most prestigious tournaments, and push the British Open into that fourth and final slot.
That should help golfers escape the warm and muggy weather that threatens this year’s Championship. Temperatures in the mid-to-high-80s and scattered thunderstorms are in the forecast for all four days of the event, and the humid Carolina weather could prove to be a drain on the game’s top athletes. Sunday’s final round could be a test of endurance, especially on a course that now tops out at over 7,400 yards.
The first step on the road to the championship rounds begins Thursday. Here’s how you can watch all the action from Quail Hollow — and when you can find your favorite golfers on the first tee.
How to watch the 2017 PGA Championship
Thursday's first round coverage (all times ET)
Television:
1 p.m. - 7 p.m. — TNT
Online streams:
8 a.m. - end of play — PGA Championship Stream
8:30 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. -- Feature Groups and press conferences on the PGA Championship’s official app
Radio:
12 p.m. - 6 p.m. — Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio (Ch. 92/208)
2017 PGA Championship tee times, pairings for Thursday
Tee No. 1
7:20 a.m. — Grayson Murray, Rich Berberian Jr., Peter Uihlein
7:30 a.m. — Adam Rainaud, Tony Finau, Fabrizio Zanotti
7:40 a.m. — Younghan Song, Dave McNabb, Charles Howell III
7:50 a.m. — Sung Kang, Wesley Bryan, Dylan Frittelli
8 a.m. — William McGirt, Francesco Molinari, Jim Herman
8:10 a.m. — Gary Woodland, Andy Sullivan, Kyle Stanley
8:20 a.m. — Rich Beem, Vijay Singh, John Daly
8:30 a.m. — Louis Oosthuizen, Danny Willett, J.B. Holmes
8:40 a.m. — Thomas Pieters, Xander Schauffele, Rod Pampling
8:50 a.m. — Thorbjorn Olesen, Brendan Steele, Hudson Swafford
9 a.m. — Cameron Smith, Bernd Wiesberger, Brandon Stone
9:10 a.m. — K.T. Kim, Greg Gregory, James Hahn
9:20 a.m. — Richard Sterne, Ryan Vermeer, Chris Stroud
12:35 p.m. — Lucas Glover, Matt Dobyns, Hideto Tanihara
12:45 p.m. — Mike Small, Jason Kokrak, Satoshi Kodaira
12:55 p.m. — Thomas Bjorn, Branden Grace, Pat Perez
1:05 p.m. — Adam Scott, Luke Donald, Webb Simpson
1:15 p.m. — Billy Horschel, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Si Woo Kim
1:25 p.m. — Jimmy Walker, Phil Mickelson, Jason Dufner
1:35 p.m. — Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Rickie Fowler
1:45 p.m. — Matt Kuchar, Justin Rose, Brandt Snedeker
1:55 p.m. — Daniel Berger, Jim Furyk, Kevin Kisner
2:05 p.m. — Ross Fisher, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Ryan Moore
2:15 p.m. — Jhonattan Vegas, Bryson DeChambeau, Jordan Smith
2:25 p.m. — Alex Beach, Sean O'Hair, Kevin Na
2:35 p.m. — Chris Moody, Luke List, Jamie Lovemark
Tee No. 10
7:25 a.m. — Shane Lowry, Stuart Deane, Pablo Larrazabal
7:35 a.m. — Alex Noren, Scott Herbert, Russell Knox
7:45 a.m. — Hideki Matsuyama, Ernie Els, Ian Poulter
7:55 a.m. — Daniel Summerhays, Robert Streb, Chris Wood
8:05 a.m. — Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed
8:15 a.m. — Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel, Paul Casey
8:25 a.m. — Sergio Garcia, Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth
8:35 a.m. — Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Henrik Stenson
8:45 a.m. — Padraig Harrington, Keegan Bradley, Davis Love III
8:55 a.m. — Zach Johnson, Lee Westwood, Charley Hoffman
9:05 a.m. — David Lingmerth, Scott Brown, Nicolas Colsaerts
9:15 a.m. — Scott Hend, Kenny Pigman, Andrew Johnston
9:25 a.m. — Kelly Kraft, Brian Smock, Patrick Rodgers
12:30 p.m. — David Muttitt, Bud Cauley, Graham DeLaet
12:40 p.m. — Rod Perry, Yuta Ikeda, Emiliano Grillo
12:50 p.m. — Joost Luiten, Paul Claxton, Russell Henley
1 p.m. — Patrick Cantlay, Thongchai Jaidee, Soren Kjeldsen
1:10 p.m. — Omar Uresti, Y.E. Yang, Shaun Micheel
1:20 p.m. — Danny Lee, Marc Leishman, Anirban Lahiri
1:30 p.m. — Byeong Hun An, Kevin Chappell, Mackenzie Hughes
1:40 p.m. — Jonas Blixt, Steve Stricker, Brian Harman
1:50 p.m. — D.A. Points, Tyrrell Hatton, Adam Hadwin
2 p.m. — Martin Laird, Bill Haas, Graeme McDowell
2:10 p.m. — Jeunghun Wang, Alexander Levy, Jamie Broce
2:20 p.m. — JJ Wood, Ryan Fox, Haotong Li
2:30 p.m. — Jaysen Hansen, Cody Gribble, Chez Reavie