2014 WGC-HSBC Champions Golf: Preview And TV Schedule

Jul 25, 2014; Ile Bizard, Quebec, CAN; Dustin Johnson tees off the 11th hole during the second round of the RBC Canadian Open at Royal Montreal GC – Blue Course. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

Depending on which Professional Golf tour you follow, The WGC-HSBC Champions is either the last World Golf Championship of the 2014 season, or the first of the 2014-2015 wrap season. Either way, it is the last big meeting of golf’s top names for the 2014 calendar year, and offers both, 2015 FedEx Cup points, $ 8.5 Million Dollars in prize money, and is the second of four 2014 Race To Dubai playoff events.

Seventy-Nine of the world’s best players will it up at the Sheshan International Golf Course (West) for the second week in Shanghai in this star-studded event.

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The three obvious players missing this week will be World Number one, and Race To Dubai points leader, Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, and the 2013 defending champion, Dustin Johnson.

The 2014 PGA Tour, Player of the Year is attending to legal issues surrounding his former management company, and is not expected to return to RTD competition until the finale’ in Dubai later this month. McIlroy is virtually a lock to win his second RTD Championship after amassing an almost insurmountable lead in the series.

The HSBC Champions is the only WGC event that Tiger Woods has never won, but the aging super-star is recuperating from back surgery, and is not expected to return to tour action until the start of the 2015 season in January.

2013 HSBC Champ, Dustin Johnson is still on leave, and his return to action is undetermined at this point.

What we do have in the field this week at this tournament, are 12 of the top 20 players in the world, which includes 40 of the top 50 in World Rankings, 11 members of the 2014 European Ryder Cup team, and six players from Team USA. Five former World Number one players, and ten major champions with 15 majors wins, including two major winners from 2014.

Other than Rory McIlroy, the other top-ten player not in the field this week is Jim Furyk, who did not make the trip to the far-east for either tournament.

The Sheshan International Golf Course(West) was designed by Nelson & Haworth, and has hosted the HSBC for all but one of its nine-year run. The course is set in among 1000 year-old Ginko trees, is 7266 yards in length, and plays to a par of 72 for the pros.

As the first of Shanghai’s golf resorts, it opened in 2004 and is still it’s most exclusive. Tiger Woods once called it “the crown jewel of Asian golf”. The HSBC was played at Mission Hills in 2012.

Dustin Johnson set the 72 hole tournament record here last year with 264 when he pitched in for eagle at the driveable par four 16th hole to deny Ian Poulter a second consecutive HSBC Championship. Martin Kaymer put a ten under, 62 up during the third round last year, and holds the 18 hole record.

With the BMW Masters being played at Lake Malaren last week, and The CIMB Classic in Malaysia, most of the players in the field should be acclimated to the huge time change, and ready to compete in this event.

The WGC-HSBC Champions will give us another chance to see some of our young Amerocan players in action against a World-Class field that includes, Patrick Reed, 2014 FedEx Cup champ, Billy Horschel and Keegan Bradley.

The French invasion will be in the field as well, including the 2013 Turkish Airlines Open Champ, Victor Dubuisson, and two-time winner on the European Tour in 2014, Alexander Levy.

If you want to watch this tournament in realtime that gets underway on Wednesday evening, you will have to stay up late, or get a nap. It will be televised on the Golf Channel starting at 10 PM Eastern Time each night, through Saturday night. The Golf Channel typically show replays during the daytime.

There is no SirusXM Radio coverage of the HSBC Champions.

Source: PGATour.com, EuropeanTour.com

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