Phil Mickelson wants to cement his new reputation as a globe-trotting golfer by defending his HSBC Champions title as the European Tour begins a new era at the million tournament in Shanghai this weekend.
The world number two heads a strong field with six of the seven top active players in the world, including Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia and newly-crowned European champion Robert Karlsson of Sweden.
Mickelson had a reputation as a poor traveller before last year's playoff victory but enjoyed playing outside the US so much he will this week discuss with officials taking up a European tour card for 2009.
The Champions is Asia's joint richest event and the first tournament of the 2009 European season, which has been dubbed the "Race to Dubai" as players battle for the right to compete for $20 million at the tour championship in the United Arab
Emirates.
Harrington arrived in China from this season's tour finale at the Volvo Masters in Spain, where he narrowly lost out to Karlsson in the order of merit race.
Youngsters Camilo Villegas of Colombia and American Anthony Kim, the world number seven and eight, have decided to play on the European Tour and the US PGA next year.
Kim did no harm to his burgeoning reputation with his part in winning the Ryder Cup in September and Mickelson has nothing but compliments for the 23-year-old who played alongside him at Valhalla.
"I think that Anthony Kim is an amazing talent in the game," he said. "He has no weaknesses in his game and he has a lot of guts. He really knows how to close it out, how to play tough, he's a tough competitor."
First round tee-times(Irish and British unless stated, all times Irish)
01.25Camilo Villegas (Col), Robert Karlsson (Swe), Wen-chong Liang (Chn)
01.35Sergio Garcia (Spa), James Kingston (Rsa), Graeme McDowell
01.45 Padraig Harrington, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus), Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha)
01.55Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Paul Casey, Richard Sterne (Rsa)
02.05Soren Hansen (Den), Wen-Tang Lin (Tai), David Howell
02.15Martin Kaymer (Ger), Anthony Kim (USA), Seung-yul Noh (Kor)
02.25Oliver Wilson, Darren Clarke, Mark Brown (USA)
02.35Adam Scott (Aus), Henrik Stenson (Swe), KJ Choi (Kor)
02.45Ross Fisher, Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn)
02.55Phil Mickelson (USA), Ian Poulter, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind)
03.05Hennie Otto (Rsa), Richard Finch, Gui Ming Liao (Chn)
03.15Peter Hanson (Swe), Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa)
03.25Shaun Norris (Rsa), Angelo Que (Phi), Andrew Bonhomme (Aus)
Starting at hole 10
01.30Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Rick Kulacz (Aus)
01.40Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), Lei Shang (Tpe), Scott Hend (Aus)
01.50Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Chao Li (Chn), Marc Cayeux (Zim)
02.00 Peter Lawrie, Joong Kyung Mo (Kor), Alastair Forsyth
02.10Ben Leong (Mal), Gregory Havret (Fra), James Kamte (Rsa)
02.20Alvaro Quiros (Spa), David Horsey, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha)
02.30 Damien McGrane, Wen Teh Lu (Tpe), Sang-moon Bae (Kor)
02.40Inn-choon Hwang (Af), Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa), Jean Hugo (Rsa)
02.50Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Ashun Wu (Chn), Bryan Saltus (USA)
03.00Kangchun Wu (Chn), Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa)
03.10John Bickerton, Wei-Huang Wu (Tpe), David Gleeson (Aus)
03.20Thomas Levet (Fra), Chapchai Nirat (Tha), Scott Strange (Aus)
03.30David Dixon, Andrew McLardy (Rsa), Hao Yuan (Chn)
