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WGC HSBC CHAMPIONS


October 25, 2017


Haotong Li


Shanghai, China

CLARE BODEL: We have with us Haotong Li, China's leading player.

Obviously you have a great record here at this course, particularly a couple years ago where you came to prominence on the international stage. Tell us, what do you need to do to do well around this course? What needs to be right with your game?

HAOTONG LI: Basically I've had a very good experience here in the WGC-HSBC Champions. How I feel about the course is the rough can be very difficult to deal with, but as long as you can hit the ball in the fairway, to stay on course, everything would be fine and you should have a good result here at the WGC-HSBC Champions.

Q. How is your experience to be playing with the youths in the HSBC Pro-Am today?
HAOTONG LI: Well, I was one of the juniors waiting to turn pro back in the day. So it's great to see and to have time with the youths and the youngsters here, the young Chinese golfers today. It's a good opportunity to reflect back my past when I was still a youth and now I've become a pro. It was a very good experience.

Q. Dustin Johnson mentioned that the greens are soft this week. Is there going to be any change on your strategy in terms of your attacking game?
HAOTONG LI: No matter how soft or how hard the greens are, you have to be really precise on this course. As long as you hit the right way to the fairway, you will always have a chance to win this tournament.

This is one of the tournaments that I felt that I can win, and so I'm looking forward to not only winning this tournament, but to have improvement on my record in this year's tournament.

Q. Reflecting last night about the photo call and especially passing by the trophy, were there any moments that you wanted to just grab the trophy for this year and win it all?
HAOTONG LI: Everybody here wants to win, and especially for me, I really enjoyed last night's Opening Ceremony, and the wiring is interesting enough for me to enjoy.

Q. How would you rank the level of the Asian players right now and possibly asking for your estimation when or which year will a Chinese player be able to win here?
HAOTONG LI: I feel that the Asian players now are getting stronger and stronger. As you can see now, Hideki, not only playing well in one tournament but being able to stay on top of the World Rankings.

Obviously Chinese players are getting stronger and stronger, as well and I do look forward to really being one of the Chinese players, the first player to win here or to witness one.

Q. I don't know if anybody asked you before, but as we witness two of your young Chinese golfers, Dou Zecheng and Zhang Xinjun, have already put their step into the PGA TOUR, and obviously, back in the day, getting into the PGA TOUR would be one of the goals that you want to achieve. Is there any future plan of getting on to the PGA TOUR?
HAOTONG LI: Definitely it would be one of the goals. But earlier this year, I haven't been making it to the PGA TOUR, so it might mean that I am not totally ready.

But I am being very patient and I want to accumulate more experience and to gain more momentum in order to achieve this goal, and getting into the PGA TOUR is definitely one of the goals in the future that I want to achieve.

CLARE BODEL: Thank you very much.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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