Strong Finish By China’s Haotong Li Secures Top-3 Finish At The Open And More

Haotong Li, from Hunan, China, played lights-out during the final round of The Open, carding a 63, with seven birdies, all coming in the last 11 holes and zero blemishes. Strong play earned the 21-year-old a top-three finish and automatic invitation to Augusta National next year.

One might chalk Li’s strong play this tournament to the exuberance of youth and ability to release the past. After all, Li, who turned professional as a teenager and was the first Chinese player on the Web.com Tour, is playing in only his second major. Earlier this year, he made the cut at the U.S. Open, however, a forgetful weekend score of 82-84 derailed his weekend.

However, the current 107th ranked golfer in the world according to the Official World Golf Rankings, surely took away some positives from those rounds and is rapidly growing accustomed to grand stages. Li teed it up in the 2016 Rio Olympics and won last year’s Volvo China Open on the European Tour. But Li’s charge up the leaderboard on Sunday has already paid off as he earned a spot in year’s first major at Augusta National.

According to Li’s OWGR tournament bio, the 21-year-old golfer has finished in the top-ten 19 out of 115 tournaments. Expect more of the same from this budding Chinese superstar in the future.