AUGUSTA, Ga. — It’s been quite a week for Haotong Li. The 30-year-old Chinese professional who lives in Shanghai got to meet Kevin Hart during the Par 3 Championship on Wednesday, calling it “the best day of my life so far.” But Thursday may be one of the worst.
The perpetrator, he said: a lobster roll and a bowl of poke for lunch.
“I went to the bathroom last night several times,” said Friday. “This morning I arrived at the golf course [I was] i still feel bad and kind, like, [living] in the bathroom.”
Li said he will try to play and withdraw if necessary. The vision was blurry. “There is no power,” he said. “Fuzzy, wants to throw up.”
Michael Jordan had his “Flu Game” in 1997. Haotong Li had a second round of the 2026 Masters. After shooting a 4-under 32 on the second nine, he found himself tied for the top 10. Now, after another 3-under 69 on Saturday, he’s not out of it. Li will enter Sunday with a four-goal lead, tied for 7th and tied with two-time champion Scottie Scheffler.
“I’m still fighting,” said Li on Saturday. Not the elements or the lesson. His stomach.
Despite the digestive difficulties, Li’s fitness story remains remarkable. He made his debut at The Open in 2017, when he came from outside to shoot a blistering 63 on Sunday and finished third behind Jordan Spieth and Matt Kuchar. But it didn’t go well from there. Li had not played at Augusta National since 2019, when he played the first two rounds with Tiger Woods. And he should have earned his PGA Tour card with a top-10 finish on the DP World Tour last year. He didn’t have much momentum as he returned to Augusta; he had missed his last four shots this week.
But Li is playing well on the big stages — at the PGA Championship in 2020, he led after 36 holes — and his outgoing personality has added fun to one of the most buttoned-up areas in the sport.
In February, Li told the “Smylie Show” that he learned English by watching Kevin Hart. He said he hoped to meet him one day, not knowing he would meet him on Wednesday at the Par 3 tournament. As expected, Li did not participate in the event.
“You are my hero!” he shouted, then exclaimed, “Let’s go!” on live television. He took pictures and videos and cheered on his famously supportive mother — at a professional competition, she once rolled up his shorts and waded into the pool to retrieve the putter he had thrown in anger — while hitting a shot in the Par 3 Contest.
Li may have questionable taste in restaurant choices, but he has never lacked enthusiasm. Or frankly, apparently. The combination makes him one of the most affordable players in golf, and a favorite of some players on the Tour for fun during the round.
“He didn’t close 18 holes,” Cameron Smith said of the pair’s practice for the 2019 Presidents Cup. “He was amazing. I’ve never heard so many words come out of one mouth in four hours.”
Li’s pairing on Sunday will reunite him with Scheffler, his teammate in the final round of last July’s Open Championship at Royal Portrush, where Scheffler won and Li finished fourth. Reporters saw Li and Scheffler both laughing at their turn, asking Li what it was all about.
“I just said, ‘Is there a time I can work out with you when I go to the PGA Tour,’ and he said yes,” said Li, according to Golf.com. “But I said, if I send you a message, you better answer me.”
Scheffler replied, “Haotong who?” Li recalled, laughing and calling Scheffler “just a lovely guy to play with.”
Li almost retired from golf in 2021 after missing 13 of 16 cuts on the DP World Tour. After winning the tournament in Dubai over none other than fellow Masters leader Rory McIlroy in 2018, he went four years without a win. In another tournament in 2021, he shot an 84 in a round that included an eagle and a 12.
“His beauty a lot he is good, and so is his evil a lot it’s bad,” his friend, Jady de Beer, told Golf.com during The Open last year. But at The Open, too, good seems to trump everything else.
“Just me [feel] very calm all the time [I] to play in big arenas,” he said on Thursday.
In Saturday’s round, many fans from China followed his every move. Zheng Gang Shen from Hainan, China, said he had visited Li several times in his country. He said that other Chinese golfers look up to him, that he has raised the level of other professionals there as an inspiration, and that he is proud of how popular Li has become.
“He’s getting better and better,” said Shen. “Great comeback. He has a great personality. All American golfers love him, as do we.”
Li said after Friday’s and Saturday’s rounds that he was surprised by how well he played. He seems to have been able to step up his game at the Masters. He has scored in all four of his appearances here. In his final round here in 2019, he shot a 68 and finished strong with six birdies on the second nine.
He said on Friday that although he is sick, Augusta seems to be the solution.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Major makes me feel good.”
Li has been stellar this week and will be near the top of the leaderboard at the start of Sunday’s final round of the Masters with an outside chance of a shock victory. But he said Saturday that competitive golf wasn’t the best part of his week.
“I think the most important thing is that I enjoy Wednesday with my mother,” he said. “Apparently, he met Kevin Hart in person. [Wednesday was more important] there’s a golf tournament.”
