Some were skeptical when they started calling it "Asia's Major" back in 2005, but scan the list of entries for this week's WGC-HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai and it's increasingly difficult to argue the validity of that claim. PGATour.com columnist Rob Bolton points out that eight of the top 10 golfers in the world, and 33 of the top 50, will tee it up at Sheshan International Golf Club from Thursday to Sunday, fighting for the winner's share of the US$7 million in prize money. more ›

Maggie Rauch is editor of China Sports Today, a blog about China's emerging sports scene, and an occasional contributor to Shanghaiist. Today she talks about the top ten sports stories to hit China in 2009—wins, losses and scandals aplenty. more ›

In case you've been following - or not following as closely as you wanted to - the HSBC Champions, Asia's World Golf Championship, our intrepid founding editor, Dan Washburn has been covering the event and what it means for China on ESPN.com. Check it out: more ›

• Malone's has written in to tell us that in the 15 years (count 'em!) they've been in Shanghai, they've sold a whopping 750,000 burgers. That's a lot of meat! Congratulations, Malone's, from all our deliciously clogged expat hearts.
• Six of the best bartenders in town compete to make the most delicious martinis they can. We’re especially curious about how the Minty Gin Martini and the Fig Martini taste. Mmmm… [Cityweekend]
• Speaking of drinks, Chef/owner of el Willy, Guillermo Trullas Moreno, is trying his hand at mixology at a new place called el Coctel... two floors up from The Shelter. Soft opening is expected to be in late November. [Urbanatomy]

The WGC-HSBC Champions tournament is starting up tomorrow, and today, the big players were on the China publicity warpath by doing their mandatory "Look at us! We're taking part in Chinese culture!" bit. The part of Shanghaiist that's actually interested in this sport says this happens every time pro-golfers come into town: three years ago there was a ping pong match. more ›

Already properly leaked, rumored and reported, the International Federation of PGA Tours made it official Tuesday morning at a press conference at the Shangri-La Hotel in Pudong: Shanghai's HSBC Champions golf tournament has been elevated to World Golf Championship status. To many in the golf world, this immediately makes the HSBC event, which has called Shanghai home since its 2005 debut, the most prestigious golf tournament outside of the United States and the United Kingdom. That China — which opened its first golf course in 1984 and currently has no professional golfers in the global top 100 — has been chosen as the locale for such an event speaks volumes about China's role in the current global marketplace. It's also a strong indicator that golf's governing bodies realize globalization, with Asia being the primary focus, is the key to the sport's survival in an increasingly harsh economic environment. more ›

Some people must have been wondering if the HSBC Champions golf tournament at Sheshan Golf Club in Shanghai was ever going to finish. Already one day longer than expected due to rain, play was extended even further this afternoon when Spain's Sergio Garcia and England's Oliver Wilson ended up tied at 14-under after 72 regulation holes. Garcia won on the second playoff hole. We're not sure how many people actually made it out to the course today, but it seems like those who did saw some good golf. Last year, Phil Mickelson, of the United States, won the tournament, also in a playoff. Read the entire Day 5 rundown here. The final leaderboard is here. more ›

Rain caused another three-hour delay today, and there is a lot of standing water on the course at Sheshan Golf Club, but second round action finally got started more than 24 hours late at 9:45 this morning. Most of the leaders teed off in the last hour. You can follow the leaderboard here and the official blog here. For those planning on heading out to the event, you may find this page helpful. Ticket info can be found here or you can call (+86) 21 962388. more ›

The Shanghai tournament's website reports from a soggy Sheshan Golf Club: "[P]lay has been officially abandoned for the day without a ball being hit. ... The intention now is to play as much of two rounds on Saturday as possible, beginning at 6.45am." The tournament director for the European Tour stop said the leaders — including Henrik Stenson, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Anthony Kim — will tee off at 8:30am. Shanghaiist's weather center reports a 70% chance of rain on Saturday. A more detailed look can be found here. Our advice: Bring an umbrella and a change of socks. If you have Friday tickets or passes, you can use them Saturday, and there is already talk of finishing the tournament on Monday (every golf journalist's dream). more ›

For those of you who can't afford tickets for the pricey European Tour golf tournament going on this weekend at Shanghai's Sheshan Golf Club, the event's official website is live-blogging with hourly updates. You can follow the leaderboard here. Swede Henrik Stenson (65) currently owns a one-stroke lead over four big names: defending champ Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Anthony Kim and Adam Scott. Three Chinese golfers, Liang Wenchong, Zhang Lianwei and Shang Lei, are tied for 29th at 1-under. Tee times for tomorrow will eventually be found here. more ›

If you have the 35-year-old Swede in your HSBC Champions office pool, you're sitting pretty. Fasth is 8-under after 17 holes and currently holds a 4-stroke lead on the opening day at Sheshan International Golf Club, in Shanghai suburbia. But don't gloat too much — it's only 12:30 pm Thursday and there are guys named Mickelson, Singh, Cabrera, Garcia, Goosen, Els, Choi and Harrington in the field. No Woods, though, for the first time since... more ›

So, will anyone go? more ›

If you attended the first round of the HSBC Champions Golf Tournament today out at Sheshan International Golf Club, you are likely stuck in traffic trying to get back into the city. If you didn't attend, you may find it interesting to know that someone associated with the tournament is live-blogging the whole thing (from the media center). And we're not just talking making a few posts each day, this is minute-to-minute stuff. Here's a segment of today's post selected at random: more ›

Shanghaiist, filing this from the media center at the HSBC Champions golf tournament, is sleep-deprived and feeling kind of lazy right now, so instead of trying to be original we will copy and paste from something we wrote last night for ESPN.com: more ›

The opening day of the HSBC Champions tournament at Sheshan International Golf Course was … well, wet. But that didn’t deter a gallery of 500 or so (that’s our guess ... some said later in the day the figure approached 2,000) traipsing around for 18 holes to watch world number one Tiger Woods. In contrast, world number two Vijay Singh, playing in the group ahead of Tiger, had just a couple of dozen spectators watching on. Such is life. more ›

His feet had hardly hit the tarmac after a long flight from the US to Shanghai and Tiger Woods was off to the Sheshan International Golf Course for a quick nine holes. The man doesn’t know when to stop! more ›

We will soon find out. The HSBC Champions golf tournament hits Shanghai's Sheshan Golf Club -- which touts itself on its website as "Shanghai's first truly private and exclusive 'members only' golf club" -- November 10-13. Private. Exclusive. That about sums it up. Tickets for the tournament are RMB 500 (around $60) for Thursday and Friday and RMB 1,000 for Saturday and Sunday. A tournament pass that includes all days is RMB 2,000, just RMB 319 more than the monthly income for the average Shanghai household. Not exactly the best way to grow Chinese interest in golf from the bottom up, as is necessary. But who cares about that? Tiger is coming to town! more ›