Before the Spring Festival, in just 10 days, Chinese male golfers staged four championship plays in the United States, the Bahamas, the Middle East and other venues, writing the "opening red" of the 2022 season as "Chinese red".
On the last day of the Spring Holiday in the Year of the Tiger, February 6, the sixth day of the Chinese New Year, Beijing time from the early morning of yesterday to the early morning of this morning, in just 24 hours, Chinese players have blossomed in multiple lines in the global professional arena, competing for glory, and inserted the five-star red flag "relay" at the forefront of the LPGA, DP World Tour, and Korn Ferry International Tour leading list!
This wave of Chinese golf "six six big shun" first started from Florida. Guangdong girl Lin Xiyu came behind in the three-round LPGA Sailing Championship, winning 9 birds and 0 bogeys on the final day and the lowest single round of her personal PGA tour of 63 strokes, jumping from 28th to tied for 4th place, winning her best record in the LPGA since the third place in the HSBC Women's World Championship in March 2021.
After 8 years of playing in the LPGA arena, Lin Xiyu seems to be becoming more mature and stable. Last year, 17 of the 18 games were played to advance, and the last 12 LPGA games were all in the weekend finals, and also delivered 4 top ten results. Relying on the excellent performance of the Departure Championship and the latest world rankings, Lin Xiyu is approaching the top 50 mark, and she is also close to her all-time high of 43rd place in 2016. However, for her, who will turn 26 at the end of this month, an LPGA championship trophy seems to be a major milestone in the new season.
"I really gained a lot of confidence last year and it also allowed me to aim more and put myself in a higher position." In the post-game interview of the Departure Championship, Lin Xiyu said, "I feel that I already have the strength to win an LPGA game, which is also the direction I have been working in all winter." ”
After lin Xiyu staged a good performance for almost 10 hours, at the same latitude as Florida, but more than 9,000 kilometers away from the Uae Al Hamra Golf Club, her Guangdong teammate Li Haotong, almost like a rhinoceros, also handed over a perfect scorecard of 9 birds, bogey-free, and 63 strokes.
In the Ras Al Khaimah Championship, the first year of the DP Tour, Li Haotong only shot 74 in the first round, far from the unfavorable start of the tie for 100th place, staged a super counterattack - from the 2nd hole of the 2nd round (11th hole of the course), 53 holes did not swallow a bogey, crazy cut 20 birds! The strong performance of 66-68-63 also allowed him to climb higher and higher in the rankings, and finally climbed to the top of the standings and tied for 3rd place on Sunday afternoon!
This is the best ranking handed over by Li Haotong on the DP Tour since the runner-up of the 2020 Saudi International Championship, after a full two years. But a single round of 63, which also set the second-best single-round stroke on his DP Tour, is his second-best performance in 2022 – four weeks ago at the Sony Open, he shocked the world of golf with a PGA Tour 63.
The 63 stroke on the sixth day of the Chinese New Year is the 16th round of six-character headers handed over by Li Haotong in the 9 races since the National Games last September! This strong momentum is unmatched by golf in China as a whole. Li Haotong's state recovery is reflected in the world rankings, that is, he has soared 96 places in the past two weeks, has risen to 293rd place, and returned to the world's top 300 for the first time after 9 months.
Wheat and Li Haotong SMS interaction (Photo/IG@haotong66)
The awakening of the former Chinese brother has aroused the sideways glance of many overseas high-level people. In the previous text message interaction with Rory McIlroy, the King of Northern Ireland had encouraged Li Haotong: "It is a pleasure to see that you have been playing better and better recently, keep moving forward, I believe you!" After yesterday's 63, Nosferatu, the god of golf data, also wrote a special article on Twitter praising the Chinese famous player: "Li Haotong's recent situation has made many people feel relieved, and he is moving in the right direction." ”
However, for Li Haotong, a real question is whether he can earn enough Dubai competition points before the "big limit" of only one week is left, so as to obtain the "full card qualification" of DP Tour members in the 10th place. As mentioned in our previous article, relying on the special member of the epidemic quarantine guarantee in 3a, Li Haotong was allowed to participate in the first four DP Tour events of 2022, including the two top events Rolex Series, and this "special treatment" will expire with the end of this week's (February 10-13) Ras Al Khaimah Classic.
After this match, Li Haotong's Accumulated Dubai Competition Points this year will be added to his points last year to calculate his final points in the "2021 Season", so as to calculate the corresponding member order to determine the number of his participation in the DP Tour in the next 8 months. In simple terms, if his total score exceeds the threshold of last year's DP Tour "card guarantee" – 121st in the Dubai race, the last Scotsman in the category 10 – David Drysdale – 380.5 points, he will qualify for almost all of the next regular DP Tour.
The tie for 3rd place in the Ras Al Khaimah Championship has allowed Li Haotong to harvest a generous 130.4 Dubai competition points, and the cumulative number of points in 2022 has reached 196 points, plus last year's 86.9 points, his total score has reached 282.9 points - 97.6 points away from the threshold of 10 for members. This means that at the Ras Al Khaimah Classic held at the same venue this week, Li Haotong still needs a single 6th place, or tied for 5th place, before he can smoothly "land" and freely arrange the next schedule of the 2022 season. Otherwise, his membership pick will drop to 16c, which is the number of only 8-15 or so games left...
Li Haotong has recently rounded 20 birds and 1 bogey
But according to Li Haotong's personality, an ordinary European Tour member chooses the right place, which may not be his goal in the new season. If he can continue to maintain the strong recovery momentum of 53 holes 0 bogeys and 16 rounds of six-character heads, reach the top 5 again this week, and even strive for a higher and more dazzling position, perhaps this is the hope of himself, and even the majority of fans at home and abroad.
After Li Haotong soared 12 hours of 63 strokes, local time on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, Panama, the southernmost country in Central America, Yuan Yichun relied on the stunning end of the last 4 holes to catch 3 birds, and achieved a tie for runner-up at the Korn Ferry Tour Panama Championship!
Although it is only 1 stroke away from the first crown again, this is already the fourth second place in 58 light tour games in Yuan Yichun's career! Panama's runner-up also jumped his world ranking by 56 places to a new life high of 267th, and surpassed dou Zecheng, a light patrol comrade, and after only two weeks, he returned to the "first brother" throne of the Chinese mainland men.
Dou Zecheng's performance in Panama was also remarkable, scoring 68 in the final round and finally finishing tied for 5th place. Another Chinese player, Zhang Xinjun, scored the best 67 in four rounds, tied for 25th place. All three Chinese players have advanced to the weekend final, which is also the second time since the opening of the 2022 Light Tour season of 3 games!
In the new season of the Korn Ferry Tour, the Chinese legion 'started' performance was quite eye-catching - Dou Zecheng was a single runner-up + one tied for 5th, Yuan Yichun was tied for 2nd + one was tied for 3rd, so that the two occupied the 4th and 5th places in the season standings with 424 points and 353 points respectively! At present, the top 3 in the leading list are precisely the 3 players who won the championship in the first three stations. In other words, the performance of the two Chinese "post-95" rising stars is not a champion like a champion.
Yuan Also Chun bunker saved the ball
If Dou Zecheng and Yuan Yichun can remain in the top 25 of the Light Tour standings at the end of the regular season on August 14, they will automatically be promoted to the 2022/23 PGA Tour! Judging from the "safety line" of the top 25 points of 774-776 points in the past year, Dou Zecheng can return to the PGA Tour after four years as long as he can score 17.6 points per game in the next 20 races , that is, an average of 40th place per game, or a single runner-up, or a 3rd place + a 4th place.
Yuan Yechun's situation is also very good, as long as he averages 21.2 points per game in the remaining seasons, that is, enters the top 37 per game, or gets two third places, or a runner-up + a 5th place, he can be on the PGA Tour's dream stage for the first time.
More importantly, the collective blowout of Yuan Yechun, Dou Zecheng, and Li Haotong has created a healthy competitive posture for the Chinese legion in the international arena. In the latest world rankings, these three entered the top 300 together! The last time the five-star red flag fluttered on the men's ranking TOP300 stage, it was already the smoke of last June...
China Golf in 2022, start construction! I hope that in the next season, the high-level athletes of the five-star red flag will live up to the good times and cheer up like the Chinese athletes at the Winter Olympics. Rush! Together to the future!
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