Agree to Disagree
‘Luckily I didn’t listen to you!’: Haotong Li trolls his caddie after incredible (and incredibly risky) shot
Everybody loves a good player-caddie interaction. We love hearing what really goes through the mind of a professional golfer before a shot—the doubt, the frustration, the vulnerability, the hubris—and we love hearing caddies manage all of those emotions. We love to see players and caddies diagnosis a shot in real time and come up with a surgical plan to execute it. More than all of that, however—more than the teamwork, camaraderie and strategy—we love watching a pro ignore all of their caddie's advice and go full YOLO
Take Haotong Li, for example. On Thursday at the Kenya Open, the recent Qatar Masters Champ found himself between a tree and a hard place on the par-4 12th. His caddie advised Li to play it safe and punch out into the fairway. Instead, Li decided to pull out his wedge and try to fly several trees and a greenside bunker, hoping to hold the shallow green and give himself a birdie look. On paper, everything about Li’s choice was wrong, but as he soon proved, sometimes you have to go with your gut.
Sometimes you have to talk a little trash as well, and Li didn’t hesitate after his fantastic shot, saying to his caddie, “Luckily I didn’t listen to you, eh?”
Caddie skeptics will certainly enjoy this banter, though it seemed to be in jest. Li enjoyed a good laugh after his shot, seemingly as surprised as anyone about the outcome, before taking the lighthearted swipe at his looper. We doubt there will be any lasting residuals from this disagreement, but the next time Li calls an audible and splashes it in a water hazard or flies it OB, he better expect a taste of his own medicine.