Ireland's Ryder Cup Paul McGinley is playing in Shanghai

Just when you thought it was all over, the 2005 European Tour season tees off this week in - naturally enough - November 2004, just a month after the old campaign finished in Valderrama.

The Tour schedule doesn't reach Europe itself until mid-March but trips to Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Middle East should give the pros plenty to keep them occupied in the meantime, including three events this year.

Many of the players made the trip to Shanghai in May this year for the BMW Asian Open won by Miguel Angel Jimenez at Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club.

But few of the overseas pros this week - the field largely comprises local Chinese players - will be familiar with Shanghai Silport GC.

It should give them quite a test, according to Mikael Eriksson, who is tournament director.

It is reasonably long at 7,073 yards (par 72) and although fairly flat, can take some negotiating in the usual strong winds at this time of year.

It boasts uniformly tight fairways, stacks of huge sandy waste areas, high Bermuda grass rough and plenty of water hazards.

There are, however, barely any trees. Back the straighter drivers this week, says Eriksson.

A $1 million prize fund has persuaded a bunch of big names from Europe to make the long trip to probably China's most modern city.

Lawrie is among a host of Europeans playing China

The event will offer 1999 Open Champion Paul Lawrie the chance to put a wretched 2004 season behind him but he faces serious opposition from among others, British Masters champion Barry Lane, twice-Ryder Cup winner Paul McGinley and Thomas Bjorn.

Lian-Wei Zhang, the first Chinese player to win on the European Tour when he pipped Ernie Els to win the Caltex Masters in Singapore in 2003, heads the home challenge.

EASIEST HOLE: The course starts and finishes with par fives which are all pretty testing.

The 554-yard final hole, though, offers arguably the best chance of a birdie, a straight, well-struck drive setting up a long iron or three-wood approach to a generously sized green.

It's no cakewalk, though.

There's a large lake on the left and one of the course's many sandy waste areas on the right.

The water runs to around 60 yards short of the undulating green. Like the rest of the course, it has been beautifully prepared and set up for its European Tour debut.

HARDEST HOLE: The par-four third will cause most problems, simply because of its distance.

It again has water on the left but only the wildest of hooks should end up in the lake there.

High rough, though, which fringes another tight fairway presents much more of a threat.

The chief difficulty at the 468-yard hole is simply reaching the green safely with two blows.

If the wind is against here, many of the field will need to take a three-wood second simply to reach the putting surface.

Information provided by Reuters Stats