WATCH: ‘Oi!’ - Haotong Li Shouts At Noisy Fans

There’s never a dull moment with Haotong Li. Whether it’s a scintillating display on course or a bizarre one off course, there’s no doubting he’s a man who knows how to grab the headlines - whether he means to or not. 

And during the second round of the DP World Tour’s Ras Al Kaimah Classic, the Chinese golfer took issue with some fan behaviour as he prepared to hit his tee shot on the 13th. For some context, he had made a double-bogey two holes prior, cancelling out one of his two earlier eagles, so he perhaps was not in the best of moods. 

Anyway, after being forced to back away from his drive, he made his grievance known in no uncertain terms. Check out the clip below:

We’ve all been there…

To his credit, the World No. 293 - when did that happen? - went on to make back-to-back birdies, vaulting himself up the leaderboard and into contention approaching the halfway mark.

However, true to form, he closed out his round with another double-bogey after finding water off the tee on the tricky par-5 18th. He’s not the first to have fallen foul of the hazard covering the entire right-hand side of Al Hamra Golf Club’s finisher, and he won’t be the last.

Yesterday, it was South African Brandon Stone who came unstuck when his hopes of hitting the green in two went down with a splash. Next to go was the integrity of his fairway wood, which finished the round in two pieces.

For Li, the closing double-drop leaves him four-under and eight adrift of runaway leader Ryan Fox, meaning it will take a monumental weekend charge to see the enigmatic 26-year-old add to his two DP World Tour titles.

A strong finish will still signify progress, however, as he continues his mini resurgence. Having once been a feature of the world’s top 50, Li found himself teetering on the brink of the top 500 after a missed cut at the Andalucia Masters towards the end of last year.

Since then, he has finished second at the Volvo China Open before opening 2022 with a solid T12 at the PGA Tour’s Sony Open. Last week, at the same venue, a bogey-free final-round 63 saw him end in a tie for third, giving the golfing world a reminder of the prodigious talent he possesses.

He’ll need more of the same over the next two days, but you wouldn’t put it past him.