WGC-HSBC Champions: Top 10 power rankings at Sheshan
The PGA Tour’s three-week Asian Swing concludes in China with the final World Golf Championship of 2019 at the WGC-HSBC Champions
We upgrade from a standard PGA Tour event last week in Japan at the ThZozo Championship to a World Golf Championship this week at the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, China. The purse jumps from $9.75 million to $10.25 million with both fields featuring 78 players in a no-cut format.
With that said, it feels like a bit of a letdown. Tiger Woods tied Sam Snead for the PGA Tour’s career wins title with 82 and provided some great late-night golf for stateside fans. The Japanese fans rabidly came out to see the nation’s biggest golf tournament to date.
Tiger’s not coming to Sheshan this week, nor will the myriad fans that were at Narashino. China’s hosted the HSBC Champions since 2005, and it’s been a WGC since 2009. The nation just isn’t invested in the game in quite the way some of their Asian neighbors are.
The WGC-HSBC Champions represents the third and final leg of this season’s Asian swing.
The field attracts a wealth of top-50 players while also including players from the Asian Tour, Japan Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia, Sunshine Tour and a guaranteed six Chinese players.
Sheshan Golf Club has hosted this event every year but in 2012. It features bentgrass greens, Bermuda fairways and rough and measures 7,261 yards for a par 72.
This course is around average to slightly below average in difficulty on the PGA Tour schedule. The winning score has been 14-under the last two years but was in the 20s under par five of the previous six times.
The fairways aren’t too tough to hit, but finding them comes at a premium. Players have attested that scoring can be difficult out of the Bermuda rough. The greens are slightly smaller than normal but are fairly receptive.
This course favors longer hitters and the most accurate of the bombers off the tee should have a great chance to win this week.
Justin Rose is the defending champion and has added a lot of length late into his career. Hideki Matsuyama, the 2017 champion, is a ball-striking machine. Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson have also won here this decade.
This is especially true if the early week weather forecast stays true. It looks like players will be in a dome with temperatures in the 50s-70s with no rain and little wind.
There is also an opposite-field event going on this week at the inaugural Bermuda Championship.
This is the biggest tournament we’ve got as golf fans until the Dec. 12-15 Presidents Cup, so let’s make the most of it. Maybe even win some money in the process by riding with my picks for this week.