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McIlroy grouped with Rose, Schauffele at WGC-HSBC

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Fresh off another high finish, Rory McIlroy will get back to work this week at the WGC-HSBC Champions alongside the tournament’s two most recent winners. Here’s a look at some of the marquee, early-round groupings in Shanghai, China (all times ET):

9:40 p.m. Wednesday, 10:35 p.m. Thursday: Paul Casey, Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth

Matsuyama nearly chased down Tiger Woods in his native country last week at the inaugural Zozo Championship, and now he returns to a course where he cruised to a seven-shot win three years ago. The gains Spieth made at the CJ Cup didn’t translate to Japan where he finished near the bottom of the pack, while Casey made his first start of the new wraparound season last week where he tied for 17th.


9:50 p.m. Wednesday, 10:45 p.m. Thursday: Henrik Stenson, Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott

Stenson has had a pair of close calls in Shanghai, finishing second at this event in both 2017 and 2018. He’ll look to finish one place higher while playing the first two rounds alongside Fleetwood, who cracked the top 25 in each of the first two Asian events, and Scott, whose unusually busy fall schedule has already included four tournament starts since the Tour Championship.


WGC-HSBC Champions: Full-field tee times | Full coverage


10:30 p.m. Wednesday, 9:15 p.m. Thursday: Phil Mickelson, Haotong Li, Matthew Fitzpatrick

Mickelson is hanging onto a world ranking milestone, entering the week at No. 50 having been inside the top 50 every week since November 1993. Mickelson remains in search of his first top-25 finish since the Masters, and he’ll be joined by Li, China’s highest-ranked player at No. 59 who will surely receive plenty of fan support. Rounding out the trio is Fitzpatrick, who was a runner-up earlier this month at the Italian Open but struggled last week in Japan.


10:50 p.m. Wednesday, 9:35 p.m. Thursday: Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Xander Schauffele

McIlroy finished T-3 at the Zozo, his fourth top-10 finish in his last five worldwide starts dating back to East Lake. He’ll be joined by Rose, who chased down Dustin Johnson in the final round to win this event two years ago, while Schauffele returns as the defending champion after rallying past Tony Finau a year ago with birdies on the final two holes of regulation and the first hole of a playoff.