BEIJING, China (Reuters) – Tiger Woods makes a third trip to Shanghai this week still looking for a first HSBC Champions title but now with the added incentive of bagging what would be his 17th World Golf Championship (WGC) victory.

The world number one compared this year’s elevation of the $7 million tournament to one of the four annual WGC events and the first in Asia with last month’s vote to include golf in the Olympics.

“Olympic status will help grow the sport in so many of the emerging golf markets, including China. But holding our first WGC event here is another key moment,” Woods, second in both of his previous attempts to win the title, said in a news release.

“This tournament will play a big part in spreading the recognition and appeal of golf worldwide. I am excited to be playing this tournament, and I am equally excited that it is being contested in China.”

The tournament also offers Woods a chance to dole out a double dose of revenge on Yang Yong-eun, who held off the American to win the 2006 title and then repeated his feat to become Asia’s first major champion in August.

South Korean Yang believes his Champions victory helped him keep his head in the final round of his PGA Championship triumph at Hazeltine.

STRONG FIELDS
“I was drawing on the feelings I had when I won in Shanghai,” the 37-year-old said. “I was trying to recapture the calmness and the serenity, and it worked.”

Phil Mickelson is also a former Champions champion after his victory in 2007 but Spain’s Sergio Garcia took away his title – and the world number two spot – last November.

“It has always attracted strong fields and has a great reputation worldwide and I’m really looking forward to trying to reclaim my title,” said Mickelson, now restored to the number two ranking and taking on Woods for the first time in Shanghai.

Garcia has slipped back to number nine in the rankings but also returns to the Sheshan International Golf Club in a formidable field that includes 20 of the world’s top 30 players.

“I’ll be defending champion on a course I really enjoy and it goes without saying I’d love this to be the first tournament of my career that I successfully defend,” the Spaniard said.

Golf has a new status in China after last month’s Olympic vote and that was illustrated when deputy sports minister Cui Dalin appeared at yesterday’s opening ceremony.

“Our first WGC event, Olympic status and Asia’s first man to become a major champion all open new avenues for golf to grow in China,” China Golf Association chief Zhang Xiaoning told the ceremony.
“Now we must work hard to capitalise on the opportunities.”