St. Patrick’s Day with Tiger

Tiger Woods is back playing the weekend at Bay Hill and Golf Channel and NBC will have coverage throughout.

Tiger Woods is back playing the weekend at Bay Hill and the fact that it’s happening at all is a gift for golf fans, the PGA Tour, and definitely the TV networks. No one knew exactly what to expect from Tiger. If you watched the last few years and came to the educated guess that he’d never play golf again, it would not be totally off base. The fact is we didn’t know if he’d ever come back to golf, and Tiger said as much, although it was coyly, as recently as October at the Presidents Cup.

Now he’s here at Bay Hill again, coming off a second-place finish in Tampa, and in position to make another run at this leaderboard. This is not like the Valspar last week. There is ground to make up with a seven-shot margin between him and the leaders, Bryson DeChambeau and Henrik Stenson, who are at 11-under. But the point is Woods is at least in position. This was not some grind to make the cut for an early weekend tee time. He’s inside the top 20 and on a course he knows so well, is more than capable of at least putting a scare in some of the leaders ahead of him. That we can even write “more than capable” right now means this comeback is a resounding success, relative to where we were in recent years.

Golf Channel and NBC will have the coverage on Saturday. This weekend marks the return of the one and only Johnny Miller, who took a pass on NBC’s first two events of the year — the WGC in Mexico City and last week in Tampa. Bay Hill, however, is a staple of the pre-Masters schedule and it’s especially important to Golf Channel and NBC. Palmer co-founded the Golf Channel and its headquarters are just down the street in Orlando. So this is a home game and one that is a highlight on their golf schedule.

Tiger tees off at 12:15 p.m. ET alongside Justin Rose. Golf Channel’s coverage will pick up at 12:30 p.m. so you shouldn’t miss more than a hole. But if you’re absolutely intent on watching from the very beginning, PGA Tour Live will also be streaming the start of his round. Here are your coverage options for Saturday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational:

Saturday’s third-round coverage

Television:

12:30 to 2:30 p.m. ET — Golf Channel

2:30 to 6 p.m. ET — NBC

Online streams:

10 a.m. to 6 p.m. — PGA Tour Live featured groups/holes coverage

• 10 a.m. — Featured groups Jason Day / Tyron Van Aswegen
• 12:15 p.m. — Featured groups Tiger Woods / Justin Rose
• 12:30 p.m. — Featured holes (6th, 14th, 16th)

12:30 to 6 p.m. -- Golf Channel / NBC Sports LiveExtra simulcast stream

Radio:

1 to 6 p.m. — PGA Tour Radio on Sirius-XM (Ch. 92/208 and streamed here)