The Chinese are coming, warns prodigy Li
Li Haotong, whose third-place finish at the British Open saw him touted as a future major-winner, has a warning for the established golfing elite: the Chinese are coming. The supremely confident Li only turned 22 in August and he is ranked 66 in the world. But his startling performance at Royal Birkdale in July saw some experts tip him for the top.
Li heads an emerging cast of young golfers jostling to be the first truly world-class player from China and he is clearly not short of self-belief.
“Golf in China is really popular right now and there are so many juniors and good young players coming up,” he said in Shanghai during this week’s WGCHSBC Champions.
“In the next five years we will see a lot of young Chinese players play on tour.”
Does that mean a Chinese world No.1 in the next few years? “Maybe one day, I wish,” said Li, who whose maiden European Tour victory came at the 2016 China Open.
Asked if that could be him, he replied with a laugh: “Probably.”
Soon after Li’s success in the summer, which qualified him for next year’s Masters at Augusta, bespectacled countryman Dou Zecheng became the first Chinese to earn a PGA Tour playing card with Zhang Xinjun soon following.
Li knows that he will have to deal with growing expectations from Chinese fans.
It was at the WGC-HSBC Champions two years ago that he first caught the eye by finishing in a tie for seventh place with Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed and Matthew Fitzpatrick.
But he struggled to follow up that success last year and finished down the field.
“Everybody is hoping that I play well here at home,” he said. “Last year was a lot of pressure but this year is more relaxed.”
Meanwhile, the PGA Tour has its first Chinese members, and now has reason to believe they won’t be the last.
After a one-year hiatus, the PGA Tour China Series resume in 2018 under a four-year agreement between the PGA Tour and the China Golf Association in which the prize money and number of tournaments will increase.
“These will be brand new tournaments, providing players with more opportunity to participate, as well as to establish a route for China golfers to get through and into the world stage of golf,’’ said Zhang Xiaoning, president of the CGA.
“The development of golf tournaments here is not only helping the tour itself, but also to help China develop better and more professional golfers and to raise the interest of our citizens to the sport of golf.’’
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said the tournaments in 2018 would have a minimum purse of 1.5 million Chinese yuan (roughly US$225,000), an increase from 2016.
He sees success through Dou and Zhang already reaching the PGA Tour after just three years of the China series, and a handful of others on the Web.com.
“They followed the path from the PGA Tour China to the Web.com Tour to the PGA Tour, and they are ideal examples of what you can do when you have immense talent, you dream big and you play on the PGA Tour China,’’ Monahan said.