PGA Championship 2013 Schedule: Day 1 Start Time, TV Coverage and Live Stream

For the world's best golfers, this is it.

Thursday's opening round of the 2013 PGA Championship will be their last opportunity to set a good early example en route to walking away with one of the sport's four most prestigious trophies. It's their last opportunity to not come away thinking of justifications like, "Hey, at least the FedEx Cup exists now."

This year's PGA Championship will be held at Oak Hill Country Club in New York. Falling in line with every post-Masters course on this year's docket, Oak Hill will be a test of each player's patience.

The par-70 course comes in at a relatively daunting 7,163 yards, a length greater than that of this year's U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club. Oak Hill most recently hosted the PGA Championship in 2003, where only three golfers wound up under-par. Eventual champion Shaun Micheel shot four under, defeating Chad Campbell by two strokes. 

The return to Oak Hill will have a glaring spotlight, if only because what last year's PGA Championship brought to the golf world. Rory McIlroy lit up the field last year at Kiawah Island, shooting 13 under en route to setting a tournament record with an eight-stroke victory.

That victory was supposed to cement McIlroy as the world's best player. Now he stares up at two familiar faces in the World Golf Rankings in Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Each of these three men carry a boatload of intrigue—and you'll get to watch two of their rounds live all day, almost no matter where you are in the world.

Can this year's tournament live up to the hype? There's only one way to find out. Here is a quick check-in on everything you need to know for Thursday's opening round, including viewing information and tee times.

Round 1 Viewing Information

TV: TNT (1 p.m. - 7 p.m. ET)

Live Stream: Marquee Groups on PGA.com (8:30 a.m. - 7 p.m.), Par 3 live stream on PGA.com (1 p.m. - 7 p.m.). You can also watch both streams live on your mobile devices, via the PGA Tour app. 

 Round 1 Tee Times

Thursday's Marquee Groups

Tiger Woods, Keegan Bradley and Davis Love III (8:35 a.m. ET)

For most—meaning everyone outside of the Bradley and Love family and friends circle—the entire intrigue of this group comes from the world's greatest golfer.

Tiger Woods heads into this tournament with quite a bit of history on his plate. As those with a pulse are well aware, Woods has gone over five years since winning his last major championship at the 2008 U.S. Open. The half-decade since has been fraught with enough personal and professional turmoil to send anyone into seclusion. 

Seemingly having moved beyond his issues, Woods has completely reclaimed top-dog status on tour this season. His five wins are more than double that of any other golfer. He's made nearly $3 million in earnings more than anyone else and dwarfs others in the FedEx Cup standings despite playing in only 11 tournaments. 

Perhaps Woods' coup de grace in this return came last week, where he told the remainder of the field at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational what the five fingers said to the face. Tiger shot 15 under for the event, winning his eighth title at Firestone and doing so by seven strokes. The performance was one of his best in recent memory, leading plenty of folks to pencil him in again as the prohibitive favorite. 

That said, Woods knows things won't be easy. You don't go five years without winning a major without it getting into your head a little bit—even when your name is Tiger Woods. Plus, as he put it Tuesday after his practice round, course conditions could send a lot of players scrambling.

"It's playing quick," Woods told Steve DiMeglio of USA Today. "These fairways, especially on the left side, they obviously cut it down-grain on the left side so you can get a lot of chase to it. On some of the holes, you run out of room quick. The balls are running out there."

It will be interesting to see how he handles the course. Woods has been one of the tour's finest putters this season, but he's found himself in trouble when finding the rough. We know one thing above all else—Tiger better start well if he wants to end this drought.

Elsewhere in the group, Bradley is by far the second likeliest to contend this weekend. The 27-year-old American tends to play well in stretches before his inconsistencies get the best.

He was one of the stragglers behind Woods last week at Bridgestone, cobbling together an eight-under score that made him better than everyone save one player. And considering the strong performance Bradley had at the Open Championship last month, it's safe to say he's in a good spot with his game. Can he make it three straight events? Or will this be another case of his play falling off a cliff. We'll get a good idea in Round 1. 

Love will be playing in his first major championship of the year. The 1997 champion of this event, he has missed the cut in four of his past six chances, including last year. His best finish this season was a tie for eighth at Greenbrier. 

Adam Scott, Justin Rose and Phil Mickelson (1:45 p.m. ET)

Talk about burying the lede, PGA Championship. The event organizers seemingly do everyone a solid by putting Woods in the morning, allowing us work-week stragglers to sneak peaks at the top-ranked player amid the mundane daytime meetings.

But I'll be damned if this group doesn't make me want to press the fast-forward button past Tiger's round and right to 1:45 p.m. Boasting each of this year's major champions, the Scott-Rose-Mickelson trio looks more like a dream Sunday pairing than a weekday pal-around.

The players combine to account for 60 percent of the world's top five golfers. If pentagon pairings weren't hell on earth—just ask any weekend golfer—you'd swear the PGA Championship officials would have thrown Tiger and Rory into the fold as well. And that's not a criticism. This is my excited voice.

Mickelson most obviously owns the lion's share of the intrigue here. The five-time major champion is coming off perhaps his most shocking one to date. Heading into this year's links course dalliance, he hadn't won overseas in two decades. He ended that streak by winning the Scottish Open and then making a torrid comeback on Sunday at Muirfield, one of the more impressive feats of his entire career.

While his grand comeback to the course led to a tie for 21st at Bridgestone, not to worry. These fast course conditions should play into Lefty's favor. His striking has been phenomenal with his irons of late, which will be pivotal to any golfer's journey here. The last time Oak Hill hosted a PGA Championship, Lefty was tied for the 18-hole lead before his ball striking started creating problems.

It will just be interesting to see whether Phil can buck recent trends for the second consecutive major. Since winning the PGA Championship in 2005, he's finished inside the top 10 in the event just once—in 2008.

Speaking of players who don't exactly love the PGA, Rose heads into this weekend fresh off one of the most disappointing duds of his career. The 33-year-old South African, whose steadiness at the U.S. Open allowed him to win his first major championship, quickly flamed out at Muirfield. He shot a Friday 77 to miss the cut by two strokes, ending his major championship defense before it could even get started.

Skepticism abounds about whether Rose can contend this weekend. He's been cut in half of his PGA Championship appearances, including straight from 2009 to 2011. What's encouraging—OK, kinda encouraging—are the two results tucked in on the outer edges of those failures. Rose finished tied for ninth in 2008 and tied for third last year, coming back from an embarrassing 79 in Round 2 to finish four under overall.

As for Scott, I feel like we've gotten to the point where it'd be a jaw-dropper if he weren't in contention over the weekend. The Masters winner has made a habit this year out of finding himself hanging around the lead in the world's biggest tournaments.

While he wound up cascading out of contention after a solid start at the U.S. Open, the Australian has picked up right back where he left off at Muirfield. He played beautifully consistent golf throughout the week, never succumbing to the poor conditions en route to tying for third. Scott also comes in carrying two straight solid finishes at the PGA, seventh in 2011 and tied for 11th last year.

We'll just have to see Thursday whether Scott can be in contention or atop the leaderboard.

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