The young 2015-16 season of the PGA Tour is about to switch to a higher gear as a bevy of the world’s best golfers travel to Shanghai for the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions on Thursday. Most of last year’s most dominant golfers will want to get their respective campaigns off on the right foot, but not if a few breakout players early into this season have anything to say about it.
Read on to find out who are the likely stars that have the best chance of walking away with a win in the fourth and final WGC event of the calendar year. For more coverage on the WGC-HSBC Champions, check out what the experts have to say, and more of our very own sleeper picks for the tournament right after this.
[sc:MultiSportArticles ]2015 WGC – HSBC Champions Betting Preview
Where: Sheshan International, Shanghai, China
When: November 5-8, 2015
Line: – view all WGC – HSBC Champions lines
Favorites – Rory McIlroy and Bubba Watson
[sc:Golf240banner ]Look out, golfing world, because Rory’s back with a vengeance.
Rory McIlroy’s 2015 ended with mixed results, mainly because of a late-season injury that derailed his campaign. But now the former World No. 1 is getting his grove back, most recently finishing tied for sixth at the Turkish Airlines Open just this past week – his best finish post-injury.
And speaking of sixth-place finishes, that’s the exactly the kind of output that you’d expect from McIlroy at Sheshan. He has finished no worse than sixth place in his last four trips to this event, and has excelled at basically all World Golf Championships events throughout his career. McIlroy already has victories at the WGC-World Match Play and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, and is only missing wins at Sheshan and Doral to complete the hypothetical WGC “Grand Slam”.
But if you’re looking for a proven winner at this event, look no further than Bubba Watson. Watson is the defending champ here, and also had great success at Sheshan in 2013, finishing tied for eighth that year. The course of this event is also fitted for players who are powerful and not necessarily accurate drivers, and this certainly caters to his strengths.
Furthermore, the 36-year-old has a ton of momentum heading into the tournament to vault him to his first win of the season. Watson has five top 10 finishes in the last seven events of the 2014-15 campaign.
Sleepers – Adam Scott and Jordan Spieth
Similar to McIlroy, Adam Scott did not have a fruitful 2014-15 season. But unlike the former, the Aussie only has his subpar play to blame; nabbing only three top 10 finishes for the year with no win to his credit.
However, Scott’s start to this renewed season is enough reason to be optimistic that he can turn things around, particularly with an impressive second-place finish at the CIMB Classic in Malaysia just this past week. Furthermore, Scott also tends to shine on the bigger stages of the Tour. Just the past season, he finished tied for fourth both at the WGC-Cadillac Invitational and the US Open.
On the flipside, Jordan Spieth is the epitome of modern golf greatness. He capped-off his illustrious 2014-15 season with a win at the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola and finished as the overall winner for the FedEx Cup.
What knocked Spieth down to sleeper status from what’s supposedly an easy a shoo-in favorite pick is his history at Sheshan. In the two career tournaments he played here, he finished merely in 35th place in 2014, then just 17th last year. Still, we wouldn’t be surprised in Spieth manages to win his first title here in Shanghai this weekend. Admit it: it’s tough having to bet against the best golfer there is right now, right?
Long Shot – Justin Thomas
In a very small sample size, Justin Thomas is the young season’s hottest player bar-none. First, he finished tied for third at the Frys.com Open. Then, he followed that up with a defining moment by winning his first-career PGA Tour title just this past weekend in Kuala Lumpur at the CIMB Open, where he also set a new course record (61).
However, Thursday will mark the 22-year-old’s first-ever WGC event, and a huge tournament that he has never partaken in yet – all the more one that’s being played way out in the Far East – could very well put a halt to his hot streak. To add; if you were to discredit his two stellar top 5 finishes this season, his last top 10 finish was way back in August, where he tied for fourth at the Quicken Loans National.
Writer’s Prediction
The Chinese crowd witnesses McIlroy’s top-form in full display for a solid win in Sheshan.
Create a betting account now while the PGA Tour’s renewed season is just getting warmed up.
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