In 2022, Li Haotong's first game of the New Year was the 41st PGA Tour in his life.
Tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. Beijing time, he will kick off on the 10th hole of the WaialaeCC in Honolulu, Hawaii, to start the first round of the Sony Open. This is the first time that Li Haotong has appeared on the PGA Tour stage after a six-month absence from last year's British Open.
In the past six months, for Li Haotong, it can be divided into two distinct stages: the first 4 games, including the British Open, he continued the downturn since the beginning of the 2021 season, and all 4 games were halfway out; however, with the watershed of returning to China at the end of September to participate in the National Games and winning the personal silver medal, Li Haotong not only successfully advanced in 4 of the remaining 5 games in 2021, but also won the two runners-up results of the National Games and the Volvo China Open.
Li Haotong just appeared at the Volvo China Open four weeks ago
Although the year-end world ranking of 460th hit its lowest in nearly 8 years, everyone can see that Li Haotong is trying to get back in shape, especially with the new swing coach Jamie Mulligan, who is also the coach of the Federation Cup champion Patrick Cantley, so that the 26-year-old Chinese star has gradually begun to recover from the report card.
"I did find some good form at last month's Volvo China Open and I want to keep my good form here." In an official interview with the PGA Tour before the Sony Open, he said.
Although he has never been an PGA Tour member, his resume of participating in as many as 40 PGA Tour games is enough to make Li Haotong second among Chinese mainland golfers, behind Zhang Xinjun, who has played three full PGA Tour seasons. Moreover, Li Haotong still maintains the first top ten of the Chinese PGA Tour (7th place / 2015 HSBC Champions), the first solo lead (2019 HSBC Champions Round 1), the first half-way lead (2020 PGA Championship), the lowest single round (63 strokes / 2017 British Open), the best place (3rd place / 2017 British Open), the first one hole (2018 Genesis Open) ... Wait for a series of Chinese mainland golfers' all-time records on the PGA Tour!
It is these outstanding achievements on the highest stage of the PGA Tour that can explain why, although Li Haotong's world ranking has slipped, in the hearts of many people, he is still the "Chinese brother" who is unyielding.
"Brother Haotong, in my own opinion, is the first person in China's golf in the true sense." At the Volvo China Open, Wu Dianchao, a 16-year-old amateur who finished 14th, once said so.
However, in Li Haotong's PGA Tour history, there are as many as 2/3 of the matches, which belong to the "top events" such as Grand Slams, World Championships, and Players Championships. Like the Sony Open, the full-roster "regular season" for most of the PGA Tour players has no membership status, and because there are not many opportunities to participate, Li Haotong's performance is not outstanding. This week's Battle of Honolulu was just his 12th PGA Tour regular season game. And in these regular season games, his best performance is only the tie for 37th place in the 2019 commemorative golf tournament.
At the Volvo China Open, Li Haotong finished second
The reason why Li Haotong can get the Wild Card of the Sony Open cannot but mention the indissoluble relationship between this game and the Chinese players. The Pga Tour's New Year's War, sponsored by the Japanese brand, has been offering wild cards to asia's best golfers, including Chinese, for years. So since 2008, there have been 6 Chinese players including Liang Wenchong, Guan Tianlang, Liu Yanwei, Li Haotong, Zhang Xinjun and Dou Zecheng, who have boarded the TEE Tour tee for 13 times, becoming the most frequently played by Chinese players in addition to the World Championships -HSBC Championship held in Shanghai!
Although the 2021/2022 PGA Tour membership was free of Chinese mainland players for the first time in five years, the Sony Open still gave one of the 10 sponsor wild cards to a Chinese player. Li Haotong, who has played a high popularity in the international arena in recent years, also appeared in the first all-team event of the 2022 PGA Tour together with Jim Furek, The Japanese Tour prize money Wang Jincan, and ST Asia Pacific Amateur Championship champion Keita Nakajima.
"First of all, thank you sony open for this great opportunity to get us here. It's a great event and I'm excited to start my new year in Hawaii. I hope I'll have a good start this year. Li Haotong said in an interview with the PGA Tour.
"I've been well prepared and I want to show my strength. I'm really looking forward to this week. ”
However, Li Haotong still shoulders an arduous mission. After all, this week is Chinese mainland players have made their PGA Tour debuts since Yuan Yichun won the RSM Elite tournament in November last year. The last time, the Chinese mainland golfer successfully qualified for the PGA Tour, which dates back to Bai Zhengkai at the Barbasso Championship last July!
Li Haotong swung the Sony Open at the driving range
Can the five-star red flag "break the wilderness" for the first time after 181 days and advance to the weekend scene of the PGA Tour? It will be a big test for Li Haotong's second appearance in the Sony Open. In 2016, he also took part in the Honolulu battle with a wild card, and although he scored an under-par score of 69 (-1) in both rounds, he was helpless to have a high promotion line with the windy and rainy Vielles Country Club, and Li Haotong was still blocked out of the weekend final with a 1 stroke difference after two days of red letters...
Compared with the sentinel championship tournament where the last week's famous players gathered, the "star flavor" of the Sony Open is relatively flat. After Bryson De Chambord withdrew from the squad with a wrist injury, the only top ten players in the world left were Australian brother Cameron Smith, who won last week. The championship world ranking points are expected to be only 46 points, only slightly higher than the Australian Tour Australian PGA Championship held at the same time, but this week there will still be 16 of the world's top 50 masters including Hideki Matsuyama, Harris Ingrisch, Abraham Anser, defending champion Luo Xiangyu and other top 50 masters in the Sony Open lineup.
In 2016, 20-year-old Li Haotong made his debut at the Sony Open
And the world's top 50, Li Haotong also let the five-star red flag, in between, had a place. But now he is ready to start again in the new year, hoping that he can return to the camp of the world's elite players in the near future.
"I think when I was in the top 50 in the world, I didn't know myself very well. Now I know myself better. I would pick up the good stuff and throw the bad stuff away. I hope to be back to that position soon. ”
(Stay tuned for the latest sony opens.)
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