Player Blog: Li Haotong

Chinese star and defending Volvo China Open champion Li Haotong discusses his victory last year, his friendship with 'Beef', the possibility of a Chinese Major winner, and much more in this week's Player Blog...

To be honest, last year I didn’t play very well in the week before the Volvo China Open.A lot of people had big expectations and I was disappointed with how I played during the tournament. I wasn’t really sure what to do, so the following week I didn’t look at my phone at all and started to read books every night to take my mind off things and concentrate on my game. It was very calming and I liked the quiet time to myself, which was something very new to me. People were not talking to me all the time and I could just focus on playing golf. Whatever it was, it definitely worked! Winning my maiden European Tour title in China was an incredible feeling, so now I try to stay as relaxed as possible every week, and hopefully it will work out well again this week!

I still remember when I was 14 years old and I got into a play-off at the Volvo China Junior Match Play Championship.I had no idea at the time how you even managed to get in a play-off, but it ended up that the other player missed a putt from three feet and that gave me the chance to win. I birdied the second hole and that is when I realised I was going to play in the Volvo China Open. To play on the European Tour for me was huge, I had never played a professional event before and it is a moment I won’t ever forget when I was standing on the first tee, I think my heart was almost going to explode from the excitement.

My dad was the first person that introduced me to golf

because his best friend needed someone to practice with his son, so he took me along one day to see if I liked it. The first time I went to the course I was 10 years old and I told him he should have taken me here a long time ago because it was so nice. Golf made me feel like a boss because you can do anything you want on the course, you are the one in control and making all the shots.

Everyone is very friendly on the European Tour.I like Beef a lot – I have played with him a few times and he is always the one having fun, so I enjoy hanging out with him on the course. Bubba Watson is hilarious as well, I’ve played with him a couple of times at the Shenzhen International and we both like to talk a lot on the golf course. We tried to get Tommy Fleetwood to talk more last week in Shenzhen but he is a pretty quiet guy – so he had to put up with our jokes instead.

It was a big joke…seriously, I said,“probably get lots of gifts”- they changed the words to girls! If you saw my interview last year in Turkey then you can probably make up your own mind. It was a funny scenario in the end but I definitely said gifts. I think my comments got lost in translation that day!

Golf in China is growing so fast.When I visit a golf course, fans recognise me now which is strange because it was only a few years ago when people had no idea who I was. We have some great juniors coming through the ranks and they are starting to put everything together with their games, they have more opportunities now which is great and I think we will see a Chinese Major winner in the next five years for sure. I would like it to be me but I guess we will have to wait and see, I’ve got a lot of hard work to do to make it to the top.

I don’t have a base yet in Europe, I usually play a couple of weeks and then back to China for a week off.It’s a tough schedule at times because you visit so many different countries but I like to go home and see my family and friends. On the Tour there are a lot of events that I like playing but the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth is one of my favourites. Something I didn’t enjoy so much was last year in Denmark when I did some stunts with the trick shots guy. I was scared for three minutes! It may look safe to some people but I didn’t trust him at all. I guess I need to learn how to say no more to people, but in the end, everything worked out fine!