Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth may struggle in Shanghai

Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth are both likely to be far from their best as they contest the final World Golf Championship event of the year in Shanghai this week.

World number two Spieth did not touch a club for two weeks after helping the United States retain the Presidents Cup last month, while McIlroy is a doubt to even play the HSBC Champions at Sheshan International after suffering from a severe bout of food poisoning.

On Tuesday, McIlroy tweeted a picture of part of a menu showing a club sandwich and Japanese baked eel, along with the words: “Who would have thought the eel would be the safer bet!? Hopefully I’ll feel better tomorrow.” That hope proved in vain as the world number three was forced to withdraw from the pre-tournament pro-am, telling reporters: “It wasn’t good at all. I just had a piece of toast and a couple of bits of melon for breakfast and I came out here thinking that I would just to try to hit a few more balls, but even after making a couple of swings my stomach was too sore even to attempt another shot.

“I was thinking of going out to play nine holes but I decided that it would do me more harm than good.” McIlroy has been prescribed medication by the on-site doctor and hopes to be able to tee off alongside Rickie Fowler and Dustin Johnson as he looks to increase his lead in the Race to Dubai.

The 26-year-old is almost 400,000 points ahead of England’s Danny Willett, despite having to settle for a share of sixth place in Turkey last week after starting the final round just a shot off the lead.

Spieth can replace the absent Jason Day as world number one with a top-10 finish, but expects to be rusty after his longest lay-off for 10 years.

“This past season was spectacular,” the 22-year-old said. “We did some unbelievable work throughout the season to start strong and finish strong. I still consider this (event) in my mind part of 2015. Obviously it’s part of the wraparound (PGA Tour) season, but this would be the icing on the cake if we were able to compete and capture a win here; obviously that’s our expectation. But I am aware that it’s going to be a little tougher than normal given I took off a lot of time in the last few weeks. I didn’t touch my clubs for two weeks, which is the longest time by a week that I’ve taken off since I was probably 12 or 13 years old.”