Yes absolutely fit – Intercostal muscles are notoriously tricky to rehabilitate so I have been very careful not to come back too soon or you can just set yourself back to the beginning. My first event back is the week before the WGC HSBC Champions at the Volvo World Match Play Championship in Spain. I am recovered enough o play now but after such a long break I am now working to get my game in shape for my return so I am competitive from my first ball back. I have missed so many events, it is going to be very important or me to perform well in the rest of the tournaments on my schedule this year and especially so at the final World Golf championship of the year – the WGC-HSBC Champions.

It has a great field year after year and from the a start was a great event which felt a bit special, many of the players refer to  it as Asia’s Major as it has such a strong field and the feel of a major. I look forward to it every year.

I have really enjoyed every HSBC Champions I have played – I feel very comfortable playing in China and I love the culture and the fans. It is such a buzz to go into Shanghai and go out for dinner or go shopping. It is such a blast that this year I am hoping my wife will come too and enjoy all that Shanghai has to offer. It is a great course and the facilities there are great – I can’t decide which year I have enjoyed the most as they have all been great which is why I return every year!

Well, as I said, having been out with my injury and missed so many events I am looking for some great finishes and maybe a win – that would be fantastic! Over the past four years I have always been on the leader board and finished 7th, T6th, T9th and 11th so the course suits me pretty well and I am really excited for the week – especially for the fist tournament as a World Golf Championship.

 I don’t mind who I am paired with though I always enjoy playing with my Ryder Cup team mates. Come Sunday it would be pretty great if I was paired in the last group!! 

I feel very lucky my job takes me to play golf in China– it is pretty amazing really. I am very comfortable in china – I have been from my first visit and I always look forward to returning there. I am very luck that I am so comfortable travelling and love to visit new places and actually my 11 tournament wins have taken place on five continents (I’ve won in USA, Europe, Middle East, China and Australia) so I guess that means I am pretty comfortable travelling.

Well we’ve had a couple of winners on the European Tour and obviously I have played in a number of events in China so I know how well they are progressing – I think it will be a very short time before we are talking about a Chinese player and it is very exciting.

I know from growing up watching golf tournaments at Wentworth just how motivating it is to watch the world’s best players play live. I used to feel so inspired after watching that I imagine China’s junior hopefuls will be the same watching us all play at the WGC-HSBC Champions – I love seeing the juniors out their watching as it reminds me of me when I was a junior.

There aren’t too many dark horses in a WGC tournament field – maybe I could be categorized as the dark horse after being out injured…..  

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