Haotong Li surprises even himself by leading the PGA Championship

Haotong Li takes the lead at TPC Harding Park with a 2nd-round 65

The biggest names in golf are playing the PGA Championship this week at TPC Harding Park. But in a field that consists of 95 of the top-100 players in the world, it’s one who doesn’t rank among them who is beating them all in the second round.

China’s Haotong Li shot a bogey-free round of five-under 65 on Friday to take sole possession of the lead in the season’s first major championship. Li, who celebrated his 25th birthday just four days ago, has made just one bogey through 36 holes this week and currently leads England’s Tommy Fleetwood by two shots with the afternoon wave still to come.

It’s the type of performance that seemingly came out of nowhere. Li has played in the United States just twice in 2020, and neither result proved promising. He missed the cut at the Memorial last month, then finished in a tie for 75th out of 78 players at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational a week ago. His results on the European Tour haven’t been much better; he missed the cut at the Qatar Masters in July, shooting 79 in the second round.

Li’s best finish of 2020 was a tie for 18th at the Oman Open in February, a tournament won by Finland’s Sami Valimaki (world rank at the time: 367th). He doesn’t have a top-10 finish in a stroke-play event on the PGA Tour in more than three years. Currently ranked 114th, Li would be the first player outside the top-50 to win a major since Keegan Bradley in 2011. Only four players—John Daly, Paul Lawrie, Shaun Micheel, and Ben Curtis—have won a major while ranked lower than Li since the rankings were introduced in 1986.

Not even Li expected this kind of play this week. “I’ve got no expectation actually, because you know, last few months, stay at home doing nothing. I just want to go out here and have fun,” he said after his round, according to Golf Channel. “I didn’t even think I could play like this this week, especially…(with) no confidence. It probably helped me clear my mind a little bit this week.”

Li shot a three-under 67 in Thursday’s first round, his only blemish of the tournament coming at the par-3 17th. On Friday, he birdied three of his first five holes to take the outright lead and finished the round with five birdies despite hitting just four fairways. His round of 65 was bettered in the early wave by only Fleetwood, who flirted with 63, and Cameron Champ with 64s.

Li may be just 25, but he already has plenty of experience. He turned pro at the age of 16 in 2011 and owns two wins on the European Tour, the last at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in 2018. A member of the International team at the Presidents Cup in 2019, his most impactful moment came when he had to retake a shot after playing out of turn. And he’s played well at a major championship before. In 2017, he birdied seven of his final 11 holes in the final round of the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale to shoot 63 and jump into third place, his best finish on the PGA Tour.

He still has 36 holes to play this weekend, but a victory this week would be a boon for golf in his home country and the entire continent. Only one player from China, Wenchong Liang in 2010, has finished in the top-10 in a PGA Championship. In the 11 years since South Korea’s Y.E. Yang first brought the Wanamaker Trophy to Asia, Hideki Matsuyama has the best finish by an Asian player in the PGA Championship, fifth in 2017.

Li will have to overcome one of the season’s toughest fields, but he’s already proven everybody wrong so far this week, including himself.