By Will Pearson, europeantour.com
at Sheshan International
European Number One Henrik Stenson returns to action 11 days after the birth of his third child this week and will play the first two rounds of the WGC-HSBC Champions in the company of American Bubba Watson and Ryder Cup team-mate Justin Rose.
With play getting under way from Thursday at Sheshan International Golf Club in the second of two weeks in the sprawling metropolis that is Shanghai, the Swede, whose wife Emma gave birth to baby Alice a week last Sunday, is reunited with fellow European Rose in the final group out on the opening day at 1035 local time.
Stenson and Englishman Rose won three points from three matches together in the victory for Paul McGinley’s men at Gleneagles in September and will match-up again with Florida’s Watson, who they defeated 5 and 4 on the opening morning in Perthshire, in the second event of the 2014 Final Series.
In another high-powered, all top ten ranked threeball, Sergio Garcia also returns to European Tour action alongside former World Number One Adam Scott and American fashionista Rickie Fowler from 0935 on Thursday.
Winner of this event back in 2012 and runner-up last year, England’s Ian Poulter will tee it up with American Hunter Mahan and Hideki Matsuyama from 0915, while last week’s joint runner-up and two-time winner in 2014, Alex Levy, is alongside American Matt Every and Thorbjorn Olesen from 1000.
After the elation of chipping in to win the BMW Masters in a sudden-death play-off last week, Germany’s Marcel Siem is back in action from 1015 and will hit the links for the first two rounds with Ryan Moore, who himself also was victorious last week in the US PGA Tour’s CIMB Classic in Malaysia, and four-time Major winner Ernie Els.
Ryder Cup opponents Patrick Reed and Graeme McDowell are together with FedEx Cup champion Billy Horshel from 0925, while Race to Dubai top 15 contenders Thomas Bjorn and Joost Luiten plus Victor Dubuisson and Jamie Donaldson play in consecutive groups from 0955.
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