Adrian Otaegui goes into the tournament as the defending champion after winning last year's championship by a stroke in Shenzhen. To stage a successful title defence, the Spaniard, who holds duel-nationality with the UAE, will have to beat a top field featuring eight players who have won on the DP World Tour in the 2024-2025 season. Others in the field include past Volvo China Open champions Alexander Levy, a two-time winner, and fan favorite Nicolas Colsaerts.

Belgian great Colsaerts, the 2011 Volvo China Open winner, demonstrated at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in October that he still has game at 41 years old when he finished runner-up, one stroke behind Tyrrell Hatton in Scotland.

With Enhance Anting an unfamiliar layout to most of the field, he said the players would have to do more "homework" than usual to get prepared for the championship.

"The golf course is playing firm and fast, so you are looking at two things; the design of the golf course and you are looking at the condition it is in. So you will adapt your game to the questions that are asked," said Colsaerts who served as a vice-captain on the winning European Ryder Cup team in 2023.

"From the moment that you walk the first time on the golf course you try to look at the shots you're going to need. You look at the holes you feel you can have an advantage on where you bring your strength, the things you have to be careful of."