New Delhi: China up and coming golfer Li Haotong, beat a bunch of highly accomplished players to win the third and final Hero Challenge in Dubai late on Tuesday night ahead, of the DP World Tour Championship later in the week.
Displaying great accuracy, the 22-year-old, who was third at the British Open this year, and fourth at the Nedbank Challenge last week, beat the classy field in a televised battle of target golf off Nasimi Beach at the iconic Atlantis resort in the Gulf state.
Li found the innermost circle around the pin at least once in each of his three rounds as he won the Hero Challenge Trophy, presented to him by Hero MotoCorp head Pawan Munjal. “It was a lot of fun,” said Li. “I really enjoyed playing against such great players.”
A runway of lights led into the ocean towards and illuminating the target, which was a customised floating green while players teed off from the beach. In the first round, they were required to hit 10 balls in a minute at the floating target from a tee around 110 feet away. Three circles on the floating green around the pin indicated different points — five for the outer red circle, 10 for the middle blue and 25 for the innermost yellow circle.
Four of the eight players were inside world’s top-20, but it was Li, ranked 58, who was the most accurate, finishing the innermost circle at least once in each of his three rounds.
In the first round, Ian Poulter edged out Tommy Fleetwood 45-40 before Alex Noren found the tiny floating green nine times in 10 attempts and aggregated an incredible 105 points. Rafa Cabrera Bello lost to Thomas Pieters in a shoot-out (nearest to the pin) while Li eliminated world no. 5, Jon Rahm 60-45.
In the semi-finals, Noren beat Poulter 40-10, while Li again had a maximum yellow (25-pointer) in his 30-15 win over Pieters.
In the final, Li found the innermost yellow circle, twice in succession with his first two shots for 50 points, while Noren managed only 45, including one yellow, in his three attempts. Despite wrapping up the title with one shot to spare, Li fired again but only to find the outer red for a 55-45 win.
