The PGA Tour BMW Championship live stream: How to watch from anywhere

Dustin Johnson (at right, walking with Harris English during The Northern Trust tournament) leads the Tour going into this week's BMW Championship.
Dustin Johnson (at right, walking with Harris English during The Northern Trust tournament) leads the Tour going into this week's BMW Championship. (Image credit: Keyur Khamar/PGA TOUR via Getty Images)

The PGA Tour will near the end of the FedExCup Playoffs this weekend when it heads to Illinois for the BMW Championship starting Thursday, Aug. 27. 

The tournament will air on the Golf Channel starting at 3 p.m. Eastern Thursday and Friday. Weekend arounds will be available on NBC. Luckily for people foregoing cable and satellite, both channels can be found on plenty of streaming services like Sling or Hulu With Live TV

Tournament preview

Dustin Johnson came away on top of last weekend's event, The Northern Trust, putting him first in the FedExCup standings heading into the playoff's penultimate event this weekend at the Olympia Fields Country Club near Chicago. 

The regular season's top 125 players qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs, the tour's seasonlong points-based competition. That was pared down to 70 for the BMW and will be further reduced to 30 for the Tour Championship in early September. The No. 1 seed in the FedExCup standings will head into the Tour Championship at 10-under par and with a two-shot lead. 

Ultimately, the FedExCup champ will claim $15 million from a $60 million pool. 

The 36-year-old Johnson hasn't yet claimed the FedExCup title, but he came out strong last weekend at The Northern Trust, which marked the start of the playoffs. He won the event by 11 shots, pushing him from 15th in the cup standings to first ahead of Justin Thomas and Webb Simpson. 

Thomas won last year's BMW Championship, and he claimed the FedExCup title in 2017. This year, he has a PGA Tour-best three wins along with nine top-10 finishes, which is tied for most in the sport. 

But Johnson has been prolific in the playoffs. He's tied for the most wins in playoff history at five, and he claims the most top-five and top-10 finishes. 

The BMW Championship, like other PGA Tour events in recent months, will be held without fans in attendance due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

How to watch the BMW Championship 

Like previous events, this tournament will be split between the Golf Channel and a major network, this time being NBC. Both of those channels can be found on popular streaming services. 

The Golf Channel will air the BMW from 3 to 7 p.m. Eastern time Thursday and Friday. It'll also carry the early hours of the weekend action, from 12 to 3 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday,  before it switches to NBC. 

Sling's Blue package with the sports extra add-on, which goes for $40 per month, will get you the Golf Channel. It also carries NBC in select markets, so check out their website to see if you can snag both channels under one umbrella. 

Other streaming services offer the Golf Channel and local channels like your NBC station. Hulu With Live TV comes with a $55 monthly price tag, while YouTube TV and FuboTV come in at $65 per month each. The Golf Channel can be found on AT&T TV Now's Max package for $80 per month. Check their websites to see what local channels are available in your area. 

Each of those services comes with a free trial and can be found on devices like Amazon Fire TV, Google Chromecast, Roku and others. 

Meanwhile, PGA Tour Live will carry featured groups throughout the weekend. At $65 per year, that service can be found on NBC Sports Gold and Amazon Prime Video

Also, ESPN+ will air featured holes on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. That service costs $6 per month, or you can pair it for a bundle with Hulu and Disney+ for $13 per month.