The Big Lead

WGC-HSBC Champions TV Schedule, Tee Times, Odds: Big Names are in the Field this Week

By Michael Shamburger

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Well it’s here, the first big-ish tournament of the season, the World Golf Championship – HSBC Champions in Shanghai, China. As the first of four WGC events, this one boasts a talented field as 40 of the top 50 golfers in the world will tee it up. This is definitely the best tournament of the 2016-2017 season thus far. Of course it is only the third week of the wrap-around season and Tiger Woods didn’t show up for the Safeway Open, so the first two tournaments have kind of gone by the wayside.

Rory McIlroy, who has won two WGC events, shared some good insight into why he believes Tiger has been able to win so many WGC events (18) over the course of his career.

"“I know Tiger’s won like 18 of these things, I’m not sure. Second place is probably down around three or four. It would be nice to try and move up that list a little bit, too.” “Honestly, I think [he won so many] because of the no-cut format. I think that’s probably a big thing to do with it. You play with a little more freedom,” McIlroy explained. “I never want to criticize Tiger’s game at all, but if there was one thing or one negative you would say about him was that he probably wasn’t the fastest starter in the world in normal golf tournaments.”"

Realizing that many will take his comments and make a mountain out of a molehill with them, he clarified by adding this 100 percent correct assumption:

"“Can I just add one more thing to why he won so many? Because he was the best. There’s another reason.”"

If you want to watch this one live, you’ll have to stay up pretty late because it doesn’t air until 11 p.m. on the East coast.

TV Schedule

Wednesday: 11:00 PM – 4:00 AM (Golf Channel)
Thursday: 11:00 PM – 4:00 AM (Golf Channel)
Friday: 11:00 PM – 4:00 AM (Golf Channel)
Saturday: 11:00 PM – 4:00 AM (Golf Channel)

Tee Times

My Picks

Here we go again. I took the first two weeks off, mainly from Tiger withdrawal depression, but now that we’re starting up with the first WGC event, it’s time to get back to it. So, presented this week without explaination, here are my top five picks:

  1. Rory McIlroy
  2. Dustin Johnson
  3. Sergio Garcia
  4. Henrik Stenson
  5. Hideki Matsuyama