‘That sucks, man. I hate him’

Haotong Li, seconds into the story, knows where it’s going. He laughs. 

He then interrupts. 

“That sucks, man,” Li said. “I hate him. 

“I hate him.”

LI’s joking, of course. Appearing this week on “The Smylie Show” podcast, he did a lot of that in retelling a moment from the 2019 Presidents Cup that, at the time, caused a small stir. Here’s the setup: During the third day of play at Royal Melbourne, Li and International team partner Marc Leishman played Americans Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler in a foursomes match, and, after a tee shot into the trees on the right side of the 2nd hole, Li punched out — but there was an issue.  

Thomas was away on the hole. While there’s no penalty for playing out of turn, a player can make the offender hit again, according to Rule 6.4a (2).

And Thomas and Fowler asked that of Li. 

Here, we’ll let the podcast exchange continue (and you should listen to the entire episode, which you can do here). For some quick background, know that Li was playing in his first Presidents Cup, and the Saturday match was his first of the event. 

Said host Smylie Kaufman: “So, Haotong, what does Justin then say next to you …? What does he say?”

Said Li: “Literally that [expletive] made me play that again.” 

Said Kaufman: “Where did you hit the first shot? Did you hit it back in play?” 

Said Li: “Well, I hit a perfect shot through the small gap and I thought, you know, for someone only play — I’m the only guy in the team played twice. At least other guys played three times. So first game for me and I’m so excited and I don’t know exact — I don’t know nothing about that rule, you know. Now I learn. And I was like, OK, let’s — because I like to play quick, I play ready golf. And then one time in the trees.” 

Said Kaufman: “You did.” 

Haotong: “Yeah, I did. And then the boss look at me like, ‘Haotong, I don’t think you can play that one.’ And I said, ‘What do you mean?’ JT goes, ‘This is match play.’ I said, ‘Yeah, what do you mean?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, you’re going to play again.’ I was like, ‘What the [expletive] you talking about?’” 

Said Kaufman: “And did a rules official say, yeah, Haotong, you got to hit again?” 

Said Li: “Yeah, and rules official came in and involves that and goes, “Oh, you got to play again.” Guess what? Hit the tree. And they’re both laughing so bad at me.”

Li’s retelling, though, ended well. 

He said that he’s now friends with Fowler and Thomas. 

Editor’s note: To listen to the entire “The Smylie Show” episode with Li, please click here. 

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