Haotong Li shares what it was like playing with Scottie Scheffler during the Open Championship
· Yahoo Sports
Haotong Li had the best seat in the house during the final round of The Open Championship at Royal Portrush, with Scottie Scheffler producing a masterclass to win the Claret Jug for the first time.
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But there were still some great stories at Royal Portrush, and one of them was undoubtedly Haotong Li’s challenge.
The Chinese player was inside four shots of Scheffler after 54 holes. No other player was within seven of Li going into the final round in Northern Ireland.
Li had not played in any major championship since that year’s edition at St Andrews. But he certainly did not let the occasion get to him.
Haotong Li shares what Scottie Scheffler was like during the Open Final round
Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty ImagesLi carded a 70 to finish one under par, but it wasn’t enough to catch Scheffler, who held his lead comfortably throughout.
You might have expected Scheffler to be completely locked in on his own game, given what was at stake.
However, as Li shared on The Smylie Show, he had nothing but positive things to say about the experience of playing alongside the world number one.
“Because I’d never met him before, I’d probably spoken to him a couple of times because I know Teddy quite well. I had just no expectations to be fair. Even after that Sunday, after that interview, I saw Rory walk from the autograph area and we had a chat. I said to him, ‘surprised I didn’t —- myself’. We were both laughing so badly,” he said.
What Haotong Li took away from his round with Scottie Scheffler at Royal Portrush
Before the event, there were questions about whether Scheffler had the right game for The Open. Even with his resume, a tied-seventh finish was still his best showing at the championship.
Li shared his thoughts on just how impressive Scheffler’s performance was that Sunday.
“I think off the tee, he never missed on the wrong side. If he missed, he always missed on the right side. The one shot where he impressed me was down the 16th, the long par three. Man, he hits that four iron. I think I was hammering my five iron, I pulled it a little bit, it was pin-high left about 40 feet by. He was hitting a four iron, speaking to Teddy, he goes, ‘I’m going to hit a softer four iron, open the face a little bit, hit a high cut right over this wind’. It was exactly what he did. It was a three-quarter shot with a four iron, with the height and the soft landing; I was like, ‘wow; this is the world number one’,” he said.
“I felt like I played a practice round with him; seriously. People probably won’t believe that. But I felt like I had a good practice round with him; I just felt like I looked at him like: ‘oh yeah; he’s going to win this by 10’.”
This year hasn’t started quite as strong as fans might expect from Scheffler—but even so—he’s already collected some notable results: first place at The American Express and top finishes at Phoenix and Pebble Beach.
And while majors are always tough to predict early in any season—Li’s experience alongside Scheffler hints that more big wins could be coming soon enough.
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