Li anxious to improve his aim
Missed fairways, overshot greens take a toll on young Chinese star
Li Haotong enjoyed playing alongside major champions Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson on Thursday, but a two-over 73 in his debut appearance at the WGC-Mexico Championship was a bitter pill for China’s rising star to swallow.
The 22-year-old Li made two birdies against four bogeys at the Club Golf de Chapultepec, paying dearly for missing seven fairways and 10 greens in regulation as he ended the opening round tied for 49th.
“Actually, I played all right; just had a couple of bad tee shots because the distance is so hard to judge,” said Li.
“For some reason, the ball went way further than when I played in the practice round. So I just need to get the perfect distance, judge the distance better.”
Starting his day from the 10th tee, Li, who claimed his second European Tour victory in Dubai last month. dropped a bogey on 12 with a threeputt. He made up for it when he holed a 40-foot birdie on the par-5 15th.
Three more bogeys pushed him down the leaderboard before he salvaged his day with a closing birdie from three feet on No 9.
“The wind was kind of different from the practice round. It was quite tough out there, honestly,” he said.
“Today I just played too safely, everything was an iron tee shot. Tomorrow I need to go more with the driver.”
Playing partners Watson and Mickelson both came home with 69s, four shots better than Li, who believes his game can only benefit by watching the established PGA Tour stars up close and personal.
“Yeah, it was really fun. It was awesome to play with them and it’s good experience,” he said.
Meanwhile, India’s Shubhankar Sharma savored a dream debut with an opening 6-under 65 pushing him into a tie for second place, one shot behind leader Louis Oosthuizen.
The 21-year-old, playing in the last group alongside Malaysia’s Gavin Green, was beaming from ear to ear after a scintillating round that included an eagle and four birdies at the Club Golf de Chapultepec.
The young Indian prospect arrived in Mexico City in top form, having won co-sanctioned Asian Tour and European Tour tournaments in South Africa and Malaysia over a span of two months.
Sharma said his goal is to “keep his foot on the pedal”, despite being in his first WGC tournament, which featured 45 of the world’s top 50 players.
“To be honest, I’m actually relaxed now. I just wanted the first round to get out of the way,” he said.
“You’re always very happy when you start with such a low round. This is such a big event, I would say this is taking some pressure off me, playing well on this course.
“And I proved to myself that I can roll it, so I’ll just do the same things that I’ve been doing.”