Westwood paired with defending champion Mickelson this week
Newly crowned world No. 1 Lee Westwood will play his opening rounds at the WGC HSBC Champions this week with defending champion Phil Mickelson - one of three men who can dethroneWestwood after just seven days at the top.
Mickelson, along with the newly-deposed Tiger Woods and Germany's Martin Kaymer, can all wrestle Westwood's new position away from him with strong performances in China this week.
The event at Sheshan International in Shanghai promises to be a gripping affair, assuming the main quartet can bring their A game. Though Westwood himself is returning from injury, the Englishman was largely superb at the Ryder Cup and two runner up finishes at majors this year point to the man's consistency.
With several onlookers suggesting Westwood's new status is undeserved and unlikely to last, how delighted would the 37-year-old be to underscore his ascent with a timely victory?
Not that it will be easy. Mickelson's form has been disappointing this year, the long time pretender to Woods' crown spurning umpteen chances to topple the troubled 14-time major winner. But the 40-year-old has shown flashes of form in 2010, and perhaps this week's stark reminder that he has failed to capitalise on Woods problems can spur Lefty on to best Westwood again, as he did at the Masters in April.
Woods himself looked dangerous last time we saw him, scoring a decent run of birdies and even an eagle against Francesco Molinari at the Ryder Cup to win his singles match. And Martin Kaymer, who could have beaten Westwood to the No. 1 spot at the weekend with a win or second place finish in Valderrama, will be keen to return to winning ways after a disappointing performance in Spain.
Here are the tee times for Thursday's opening round:
From hole 1:
0850 Jason Bohn (USA), Richie Ramsay (Sco), Andrew Dodt (Aus)
0900 Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha), Bill Lunde (USA)
0910 Marcus Fraser (Aus), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha), Pablo Martin (Spa)
0920 Katsumasa Miyamoto (Jpn), Carl Pettersson (Swe), Michael Sim (Aus)
0930 Michio Matsumura (Jpn), Richard Green (Aus), Simon Khan (Eng)
0940 Stuart Appleby (Aus), Ryan Palmer (USA), Matteo Manassero (Ita)
0950 Anders Hansen (Den), Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn), Heath Slocum (USA)
1000 Li Chao (Chn), Bill Haas (USA), Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe)
1010 Pariya Junhasavasdikul (Tha), Alistair Presnell (Aus), Richard S Johnson (Swe)
1020 Tetsuji Hiratsuka (Jpn), Arjun Atwal (Ind), Rhys Davies (Wal)
1030 Hao Yuan (Chn), Shunsuke Sonoda (Jpn), Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa)
1040 Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Mardan Mamat (Sin), Danny Willett (Eng)
1050 Brendan Jones (Aus), Kang-Chun Wu (Chn), David Horsey (Eng)
Starting at hole 10
0845 Robert Allenby (Aus), Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Anthony Kim (USA)
0855 Yuta Ikeda (Jpn), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Padraig Harrington (Ire)
0905 Retief Goosen (Rsa), Liang Wen-Chong (Chn), Rory McIlroy(NIr)
0915 Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn), Ian Poulter (Eng), Nick Watney (USA)
0925 Tiger Woods (USA), Ernie Els (Rsa), Graeme McDowell (NIr)
0935 Martin Kaymer (Ger), Hunter Mahan (USA), Paul Casey (Eng)
0945 Lee Westwood (Eng), Phil Mickelson (USA), Y.E. Yang (Kor)
0955 Henrik Stenson (Swe), Alvaro Quiros (Spa), Rickie Fowler (USA)
1005 Adam Scott (Aus), Peter Hanson (Swe), Seung-yul Noh (Kor)
1015 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Hiroyuki Fujita (Jpn), Robert Karlsson (Swe)
1025 Ben Crane (USA), Francesco Molinari (Ita), Kyung-Tae Kim (Kor)
1035 Ross Fisher (Eng), Camilo Villegas (Col), K J Choi (Kor)
1045 Luke Donald (Eng), Tim Clark (Rsa), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa)
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