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.
In truth, last year’s Open Championship proved to be something of an anticlimax. Scottie Scheffler led after the second round and barely looked back.
Where does Phil Mickelson rank among the all time golfing greats? 🤔
Haotong Li was the only player within four shots of the world number one ahead of the final round in Northern Ireland.
Remarkably, Li had not played in any major championship since The Open was most recently held at St Andrews in 2022. But he certainly did not let the occasion get to him.
Haotong Li says what Scottie Scheffler was really like during the final round of The Open Championship
Li shot a one under par round of 70 on Sunday. Unsurprisingly, it was not enough to catch Scheffler, who won by four.
You would be forgiven for assuming that Scheffler would be solely focused on his own game and getting across the line.
However, as Li has told The Smylie Show, he could not speak high enough of the 29-year-old as he was asked about the experience of playing with Scheffler.
“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.
“I think once we were on the first tee, and Scottie’s just one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I think if I’d played with any other players, they wouldn’t make me feel that calm in that final group of a major.”
What impressed Haotong Li most about Scottie Scheffler
There was a small amount of doubt over whether Scheffler would have the game to win The Open Championship. By his standards, it was underwhelming that his previous best result in the last major of the year was tied for seventh.
But he stole the show at Royal Portrush. And Li explained just how impressive he found Scheffler’s performance on 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’.
Where will Tiger Woods finish if he plays The Masters this year?
Tiger is not ruling it out…
“The most impressive thing was on number nine [after the double bogey], he was so mad, I could tell he was mad. But he was so calm, acting so calm. Second shot, bang, tap in, I was like, ‘okay, yeah, thank you’.”
Li’s comments will strike a chord with anyone who has watched Scheffler in the opening weeks of this season.
Scheffler has not been anywhere near his best. And yet, he won at The American Express, before finishing third at the WM Phoenix Open and fourth at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
With that, it would be no surprise to see Scheffler win at least one major this year. Li’s comments show that Sunday at one of the four biggest events of the season is just another day at the office for the American.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
