By Christopher Powers
The PGA Tour finishes off its Asian swing this week with the first World Golf Championship of the 2018-’19 season, the WGC-HSBC Champions, held at Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai, China.

A field of 78 of the world’s best players will compete for the $10 million purse, $1.6 million of which goes to the winner. A year ago, that man was Justin Rose, who overcame a seemingly insurmountable eight-stroke deficit to catch Dustin Johnson on the final day.

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Rose will begin his title defence alongside Tommy Fleetwood and Brooks Koepka, fresh off his four-stroke victory at the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges. Koepka, now the No. 1 ranked player in the world, is still second to Dustin Johnson when it comes to the favorites to win the tournament, as Johnson is +600 to win and Koepka +675. Rose checks in as the third favorite at +800.

Among the other marquee threesomes includes Johnson’s, as he’ll play with Francesco Molinari and Rory McIlroy in the opening two rounds. All three will be making their season debuts in China. Other stars making an appearance include Jason Day, Jon Rahm, Patrick Reed and 2016 winner Hideki Matsuyama.

TV Schedule
OSN Sports 3HD will carry live coverage Thursday and Friday from 5am and on Saturday and Sunday from 6am.

Thursday Tee Times (all times ET, U.S.A).
Note: The United Arab Emirates is 8 hours ahead of Eastern Time.

Tee No. 1
8:50 p.m. — Yechun Yuan, Brett Rumford, Justin Harding
9 p.m. — Xinjun Zhang, Andrea Pavan, Oliver Bekker
9:10 p.m. — JC Ritchie, Adam Bland, Yanwei Liu
9:20 p.m. — George Coetzee, Yuta Ikeda, Scott Vincent
9:30 p.m. — Sihwan Kim, Pat Perez, Erik Van Rooyen
9:40 p.m — Adam Hadwin, Jason Norris, Bowen Xiao
9:50 p.m. — John Catlin, Yuki Inamori, Adrian Otaegui
10 p.m. — Wenchong Liang, Andy Sullivan, Ryan Fox
10:10 p.m. — Sanghyun Park, Jorge Campillo, Andrew Putnam
10:20 p.m. — Gaganjeet Bhullar, Chris Wood, Alexander Bjork
10:30 p.m. — Alexander Levy, Julian Suri, Chez Reavie
10:40 p.m. — Shubhankar Sharma, Brandon Stone, Emiliano Grillo
10:50 p.m. — C.T. Pan, Thomas Pieters, Matt Wallace

Tee No. 10
8:55 p.m. — Russell Knox, Patton Kizzire, Satoshi Kodaira
9:05 p.m. — Brian Harman, Kevin Na, Branden Grace
9:15 p.m. — Charley Hoffman, Brandt Snedeker, Byeong Hun An
9:25 p.m. — Cameron Smith, Lucas Bjerregaard, Billy Horschel
9:35 p.m. — Adam Scott, Hideki Matsuyama, Ian Poulter
9:45 p.m. — Patrick Reed, Jon Rahm, Alex Noren
9:55 p.m. — Brooks Koepka, Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood
10:05 p.m. — Patrick Cantlay, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Eddie Pepperell
10:15 p.m. — Kyle Stanley, Thorbjorn Olesen, Kiradech Aphibarnrat
10:25 p.m. — Matthew Fitzpatrick, Keegan Bradley, Ashun Wu
10:35 p.m. — Paul Casey, Xander Schauffele, Tyrrell Hatton
10:45 p.m. — Haotong Li, Jason Day, Tony Finau
10:55 p.m. — Francesco Molinari, Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy

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