Claret Jug quest

One of the finest golfers China has ever produced, Haotong Li will have no fear when he takes on the unique bumps and hollows of Royal Birkdale this summer.

It will be just his seventh appearance at The Open – and it comes at a venue where he finished third on debut in 2017.

He produced three under-par rounds on then-unfamiliar links terrain, finishing behind only Jordan Spieth and Matt Kuchar and one clear of Rory McIlroy.

Li also served notice of his undoubted potential with a final-round 63, the lowest major round ever recorded by a Chinese golfer. This score would have matched the Open record but for the fact Branden Grace produced the first-ever 62 just 24 hours earlier.

Amazingly, Li, overcome with nerves on what was just his second major appearance, came close to withdrawing from the Championship altogether. He persevered and, by sinking eight birdies in his final 11 holes, made his own mark on one of golf’s most famous venues.

“Up until Saturday I played all right – then Sunday I started making some putts and everything started going my way,” was Li’s rather magnanimous assessment.

“He didn’t miss a putt,” was how playing partner Ernie Els described Li’s Sunday showing.

Ever the trailblazer, Li would break further ground just 12 months later by becoming the first Chinese man to reach the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking.

He again showed proficiency on the links when he finished T39 at Carnoustie, however this was followed by three missed cuts, in 2019, 2021 and 2022.

Li had regained form by the time he returned to The Open at Royal Portrush last year, adding two more DP World Tour titles to his resume, the BMW International (2022) and the Qatar Masters (2025).

And it was like he had never been away, producing a bogey-free four-under-par 67 to share the lead with Harris English, Matt Fitzpatrick, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Jacob Skov Olesen after round one.

The putts continued to drop and Li momentarily took the outright lead when he birdied the 12th on Friday.

“Last year I felt more part of The Open because I was part of that elite group all the way from Thursday,” he recently revealed on The Smylie Show podcast.

A third round 69, which included a bogey at the last, was enough to secure a place in Sunday’s final group alongside Scottie Scheffler, albeit four shots back.

Both players birdied the opening hole to energise the galleries, but two bogeys coupled with a birdie for Scheffler meant the world number one was seven strokes ahead by the time they walked on the 5th tee.

“I felt like I was playing a practice round with him,” said Li, such was Scheffler’s brilliance that day. “I was just looking at him thinking ‘Yeah, he’s gonna win.’”

Buoyed by playing alongside Scheffler, Li rallied, finding five more birdies – including one from the fringe on 11 [below] – to close out a one-under 70 and a tie for fourth place.

Li held the 36-hole lead at the 2020 PGA Championship and appears to relish the big occasion.

His best major finishes have, however, both come at The Open – and another spin around Royal Birkdale could unlock another memorable display by one of golf’s biggest personalities.