Who is the ‘most handsome man in China’ looking to stop Scheffler?

Famous names like Matthew Fitzpatrick, Rory McIlroy, and Scottie Scheffler, the top leaderboard of the 153rd Open Championship, line up on the leaderboard.

However, as the final day approaches, China’s Li Haotong, who last made the cut at the Open in 2018, is in opposition to Scheffler.

He will make an unlikely comeback as he competes in the men’s major, becoming only the third Asian player to do so after Hideki Matsuyama and Yang Yong-eun.

If Li, the 29-year-old has had a rollercoaster career to date, could defeat the world no. 1 in the final round, which would be a remarkable turn of events.

He has even been referred to as China’s “most attractive man.”

That is quite the claim in a county of 1.4 billion people. Li claims that he was not the one who started it, though.

It turns out to be a joke that his club’s manufacturer had on one of his wedges, but it has since stuck.

He even made it known on Friday that he had sent Phil Mickelson a picture of his wedge, who responded that it was “shame” for China.

Things didn’t go according to plan when Li made his Open debut in 2017, but he placed third.

The following year, he finished 39th, but he had never even managed to make the championship standings.

With 18 holes to play, that changed this week when he climbed up the leaderboard with a strong opening round of 67, replicated that score in his previous outing, and then produced yet another strong third round of 69.

Li obviously prefers to speak on the course. And he’s resilient because of how well he’s attained this position.

After suffering from injury and poor form, he nearly quit the sport in 2021, but he won the BMW Invitational Open the following June.

His performance at Royal Portrush, which helped him reclaim his position in the world rankings to 111, and his victory at the Qatar International in February, which ended a nearly three-year search for the title, is not surprising.

Li claimed that for the past two years, he had been having trouble with his swing and “yips” after his third round.

Due to the size of the crowds in Portrush, Li claimed that he restricted his practice to the range to make his Open performance even more impressive.

Li admitted, “I’ll tell you what, over the past few weeks, I felt really, really bad.”

“I hardly ever started playing because I felt like there were so many people on the course and the course was so packed.

I was uncomfortable after a few balls I kind of hit on the range. I wasn’t, even during our Thursday and Friday morning sessions.

“But it was actually quite nice up until today.”

He will have to adjust to this, I imagine. He has maintained contact in Northern Ireland, unlike at the 2020 PGA Championship, where he took the lead after 36 holes but lost.

And for the first time in his career, he will leave for the final pairing of a major.

He’ll have everyone’s attention, but he’ll struggle as he attempts to shock Scheffler, which he plans to accept.

He claimed, “I’m actually quite anticipating it.”

“I’ll just try my best to make a deal out there,” he said.

It will be exciting, they say.

Li acknowledges that he has nothing to lose as the underdog against the sport’s elite.