Showdown at Sheshan (HSBC Champions and the World's No. 1)

[Chilli Dipper]

October is a very lean period in professional golf, as lower-tier events dominate American and European tour schedules and major Southern Hemisphere tournaments still lie beyond the horizon. These times are so bad, a new player will rise to the top of the World Golf Rankings, even as neither he, the current world number one, or any of the other players in contention for the top spot remain on the sidelines.

Lee Westwood is destined to become the new number one as of October 31 based on the world ranking's system of event weighting, even as he plans to skip the next few European Tour tournaments to further rest an ankle injury that caused him to miss the PGA Championship in August. Also not in action is outgoing top-ranked player Tiger Woods, who has no plans to play in the upcoming events in the PGA Tour's fall series; neither does world number three, Phil Mickelson. Then there's the hottest golfer on the planet at the moment, Martin Kaymer, who has won the last three stroke-play event he's entered: currently ranked fourth in the world, he will be playing in the Andalusian Masters two weeks from now to try to pull ever closer to the trio ahead of him.

All roads are leading to an epic confrontation in China the first week of November. At the HSBC Champions in Shanghai, newly minted a World Golf Championships event, no fewer than four players will have a chance to earn the world's number one ranking amongst a loaded field. If that's not enough to give golf fans something to look forward to, I don't know what will.

[Acropo]

It could be a cracking event, if all the contenders travel - and contend!

Kaymer's on a hot streak, Westwood (despite his calf injury) has had a very high-scoring year, Tiger had a great final round at Celtic Manor and Stricker seems to be hauling hismelf back up the lsit as well. Then there's Jim Furyk (assuming he and Stricker attend), the possibility that Casey might like to sow everyone he's better than them, maybe Justin Rose the same...

The biggest question mark is over Mickelson - will he be fit enough to attend?

The next biggest question mark is - will I get up early enough to watch, or use lunchtime later in the day to complain about timezones...?

October is not quite as quiet as you suggest...we in Europe have the delights of the Portuguese Open and the Matchplay at Valderrama to come before Shanghai (NB - my brother in law, who knows about these things, says you have to watch out for the...ahem...more assertive Shangahi girls. The phrase to memorise sounds like 'pirau, pirau', which means 'no thanks').

Otherwise, they'd have to send the cameras to my club, for the various matchplay finals, the kick-off of the winter eclectic and the Memorial, the last of our 'majors'. Always something happening!

[kafka01]

You guys realise that the No.1 title will change hands before this tournament, and thats definitive.
Either Westwood will take over without playing any tournaments by 31st of October, or if Kaymer finishes 1st or 2nd in Sotogrande he will take the title. So, no showdown at Sheshan. Its not even clear yet, how many points Tiger will loose when he is taken over - meaning, he could not only drop to 2nd place but even further.

And for Mickelson, yeah, no!

[andymane]

i will on this course watching this tournament! so pumped. Sheshan is a beautiful course!

[Chilli Dipper]

You guys realise that the No.1 title will change hands before this tournament, and thats definitive.

Yes, there will be a new number one player before the HSBC Champions; that is certain. What you're forgetting is that even with such change a given, the rankings of that top group of players will be so close going into the tournament that any of them can claim the top ranking on the merit of their result in China.

[kafka01]

Well, thats what i´m a bit uncertain of tbh. We obv. only speak about Tiger. The way they calcuate these rolling weighted averages can make it very possible that a guy like Tiger with 8.x points all of sudden drops to 7 or even less, if he hasnt accomplished much in the last two years, i think a prime example how fast you can drop into oblivion was David Duval back then. So Tiger better makes sure he gets some wins racked up, otherwise he might end up really low in a couple of months.