By Ryan Herrington
Within minutes of each other, the PGA Tour and LPGA issued statements Wednesday announcing the cancellation of tournaments scheduled to be held in China in October. Both cited guidance from the China Golf Association about ongoing COVID-19 related restrictions.

The WGC-HSBC Champions was slated for Oct. 27-30 at Sheshan International in Shanghai. It was one of two remaining World Golf Championship events on the PGA Tour schedule. This is the third straight year the event has been cancelled due to COVID. The last playing came in 2019 when Rory McIlroy beat Xander Schauffele in a playoff.

“We have worked with all Tours, as well as the China Golf Association, on the viability of hosting the WGC-HSBC Champions this fall, but unfortunately the logistical implications forced the difficult decision to cancel the event,” said Christian Hardy, PGA Tour Senior Vice President, International. “We are thankful for HSBC’s partnership during these trying times as we continue to navigate the changing COVID-19 climate.”

That same week, the PGA Tour was planning to play the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. The tour announced that the Bermuda event at Port Royal Golf Course will now be a full FedEx Cup points event with a purse of $6.5 million.

The Buick LPGA Shanghai was set for Oct. 13-16 at Qizhong Garden G.C. in Shanghai. This event has also not been held since 2019, when Danielle Kang defended her title. It was to be the first of four straight weeks that the LPGA would be playing events in Asia; the tour still has tournaments in South Korea, Chinese Taipei and Japan slated.

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The post WGC, LPGA fall events in China cancelled due to COVID restrictions appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Tod Leonard
With other PGA Tour events in Asia this fall being moved to the United States because of the coronavirus pandemic, next up in the decision-making process was the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, China, scheduled for Oct. 29-Nov. 1. That call came on Tuesday, with the tour announcing it is cancelling the tournament for 2020.

In a release, the tour cited the announcement of guidelines put forth by the General Administration of Sports of China, which said in early July that only a small number of “important” international events would be allowed to go on, and, ultimately, the HSBC was not one of them.

“In line with Chinese government guidelines and being mindful of the logistical implications, we collectively made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 event,” said Ty Votaw, a tour executive vice president who oversees the international schedule.

In the past week, the tour already had moved the CJ Cup from South Korea to Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, and the Zozo Championship from Japan to Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Still remaining on the schedule is the Bermuda Championship, which was to be played concurrently with the HSBC. The next foreign event beyond that is the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Dec. 3-6.

As Votaw noted, the HSBC has been a popular event in China. It gained WGC status in 2009 and nearly all of its winners are high-profile players, including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson. Rory McIlroy won in 2019, immediately preceded by Xander Schauffele and Justin Rose.

The loss of the HSBC Champions brings to 12 the number of tour events cancelled this season because of COVID-19, including the Open Championship and Players Championship. Fourteen tournaments have been postponed and rescheduled for later dates in 2020, while the Ryder Cup and men’s and women’s Olympic competitions were pushed to 2021.

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By John Feinstein
Although the PGA Tour has been able to pull off a restart to its 2020 schedule during the past six weeks, the rest of the year remains in flux.

Last week’s Memorial Tournament was supposed to be the first event to allow fans to return. This week’s 3M Open outside Minneapolis, at one point, was going to be allowed to take the step of staging pro-ams and having some corporate hospitality. The spike in the COVID-19 pandemic forced the tour to call off the fans and the pro-ams. And earlier last week, the remaining events on the tour schedule through Labor Day weekend’s Tour Championship also announced they will be held without either.

There is also the issue of the three events that had been scheduled to be played in Asia in October: the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges in South Korea, the Zozo Championship in Japan and the WGC-HSBC Champions in China. According to sources at the tour, it is virtually certain that none of those events will be played in Asia, although the first two are likely to be moved to sites in the United States.

Given the restrictions in international travel, few players were going to risk travelling to or from Asia in October. “It isn’t just about getting there, it’s the possibility of being quarantined and being stuck there for a period of time,” one source said. “With the way the pandemic has been trending here, the chances that we could make the events happen even if players were willing to go isn’t great right now.”

The tour’s initial plan, according to sources, was to play the CJ Cup and the Zozo in Las Vegas because those events come immediately after the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open already scheduled for TPC Summerlin. That could create a three-week bubble in the same city—perhaps at the same golf course. But with Las Vegas being one of the areas hard hit by the recent COVID-19 spike, moving both of the Asia events to other cities is now an increased possibility.

The event in China almost certainly won’t be played for a number of reasons. China has announced it is cancelling all sporting events for the rest of the year except for trials leading to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. And HSBC wouldn’t want to play the event anywhere without its defending champion, Rory McIlroy. It was highly unlikely that McIlroy would chance taking a trip to China two weeks before the rescheduled Masters in November. Even if the HSBC were to be moved to the United States, it’s unclear whether McIlroy or other big names would enter that close to the Masters, which now comes near the end of what will be an active summer and fall for most players.

Zozo’s defending champion is Tiger Woods. The tournament is scheduled for three weeks out from the Masters and, if it is played in the U.S., the chances of Woods playing are much greater. “They might just call Tiger and say, ‘Tell us where you want to play,’ and go there,” one player said. “As long as he enters, they’ll be happy.”

With the Asia events still three months away, sources say the tour is holding off on any final decisions on where to play until it has secured courses and consulted with the players. The latter hasn’t happened yet. “I’ve been on a lot of conference calls about all sort of issues the last couple of months, but Asia hasn’t come up yet,” said Charley Hoffman, chairman of the Players Advisory Council [PAC]. “I’m sure they want to get their ducks in a row before they bring it up to us.”

Kyodo News
Tiger Woods celebrates after winning the 2019 Zozo Championship.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan was no more transparent with the media when asked about the Asian tournaments this week than the tour has apparently been with the players.

“We have three great partners in Asia in Zozo, CJ and HSBC, and we’re well aware of some of the challenges that we have in every market that we’re playing, and we’re working through those challenges with our partners,” Monahan said during a Wednesday press conference at the Memorial. “At this point I don’t have anything to offer other than that, but as soon as we’ve been able to determine what our answers are going to be, you guys will be the first to know.”

More pressing than Asia is the tour’s decision to continue to not allow fans, play pro-ams or have corporate hospitality at any tournaments. Sponsors put up millions to get TV exposure first and foremost, but also to entertain corporate clients. One sponsor, John Deere, pulled out for this year, but the tour had Workday willing to jump in on short notice. Workday will apparently be rewarded next year with a fall event, according to reports, most likely to be played in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Monahan was asked about the fall and when fans might be allowed back to tournaments, and was cautious in his response.

“We’re spending a lot of time in each of the subsequent tournaments, or each of the tournaments in the fall, working on a number of different ways to stage the event, which includes full capacity, partial capacity and obviously the way that we’re operating now, which is no spectators,” Monahan said. “And that will be largely dependent on what we hear from the communities where we play.”

Warren Little
Bryson DeChambeau walks with his pro-am group in the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club

Other sponsors are accepting their fate of fanless events in the near term for several reasons: They know that the tour’s carefulness is understandable, the tour has picked up the entire tab for purses since play started again, and the tour is apparently in a position to cover full purses at least until the end of the calendar year, if need be. Normally the tour pays for half of each week’s purse.

“You have to understand, they went 10 weeks without paying out purses, so they’re a little more flush than usual,” one source said. “Plus, they have an emergency fund that they can use, and their new TV deal [starting in 2022] will give them a 70 percent boost overall. You add that all up, and they’re in pretty good shape, even if this lasts a while longer.”

Equally important to the local tournament organizations, the tour has also pitched in to make sure the charities that normally receive money from the events are still getting their normal donations, or close to those numbers.

There’s no plan, at least for the moment, to alter purses for players. “If you get into next year and things haven’t changed, then they’d have to look at cutting purses,” said one source. “For now, though, the players are loving life. Full purses, no pro-ams, no corporate appearances, no autographs and almost no media. What could be more perfect for them?”

The players know that this isn’t a format that can survive long-term, however. “We understand the importance of pro-ams and corporate hospitality for the sponsors,” Hoffman said. “And we certainly understand the importance of the sponsors. When we can play pro-ams, we’ll be ready to play them. But I don’t blame the tour for being cautious.”

For now, the new norm will be the norm. Players and their corporate sponsors go to Asia every fall because there is lots of product to sell there. For this year, though, those trips won’t be happening.

Never in the history of sports has the old Brooklyn Dodgers rallying cry, “Wait ’til next year,” had more meaning.

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By Joel Beall
Last fall, Brooks Koepka dismissed any notion of a budding rivalry between he and Rory McIlroy. “I’m not looking at anybody behind me,” Koepka said at the CJ Cup. “I’m No. 1 in the world. I’ve got open road in front of me … I’m not looking in the rearview mirror, so I don’t see it as a rivalry.”

Someone needs to tell the big fella to refresh OWGR.com.

Although neither was in action this week, the Ulsterman will overtake Koepka for the top spot in the World Rankings when they come out officially on Monday. Koepka’s reign ends at 38 weeks, holding the No. 1 ranking since winning the 2019 PGA Championship at Bethpage Black in May.

This is McIlroy’s eighth time with the OWGR crown, but first since Sept. 19, 2015. Scheduled to play in this week’s Genesis Invitational at Riviera, McIlroy has finished fourth place or better in his last four starts, highlighted by a win at the WGC-HSBC Champions.

With the No. 1 ranking, along with the PGA Tour Player of the Year in tow, perhaps there is something of a competition between the two bruisers. Of course, we’d be remiss if failing to include the second part of Koepka’s McIlroy remarks.

“I’ve been out here for, what, five years,” Koepka explained. “Rory hasn’t won a major since I’ve been on the PGA Tour.”

Touche. Which reminds us, the Masters begins in 59 days.

The post Rory McIlroy set to overtake Brooks Koepka as No. 1 in the World Rankings appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

OK, so maybe there is no “rivalry” from Koepka’s viewpoint. As for the rest of us, well it sure looks like the makings of a grand clash between two of the most impressive golfers of this generation. If you don’t like the label rivalry, either, so be it. But the two are clearly going to be challenging each other for golf’s biggest prizes for the foreseeable future.

On Sunday, McIlroy won the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, defeating Xander Schauffele (while Koepka was back in Florida nursing an injured knee). McIlroy’s victory was his fourth in 2019 and second in his last six starts.

It also provided for some (not surprisingly) great perspective from the Northern Irishman.

“The four wins this year have been wonderful,” McIlroy said of his titles at The Players, RBC Canadian Open, Tour Championship and WGC-HSBC. “But more than that, I think it is the consistency that I’m bringing week in, week out. Even if I don’t have my best stuff, at least I give myself a chance. Even last week in Japan [at the Zozo Championship], finding something after a couple of days and go on to produce a high finish [T-3 after a so-so opening-round 72].”

He’s not wrong.

In 23 worldwide starts in 2019, McIlroy has 18 top-10 finishes. Only twice has he missed the cut this year (albeit one notable one at the Open Championship at Royal Portrush), his fewest number of weekends off since 2014, which also happens to be the last time he won a major.

Zhe Ji/Getty Images
With a subtle fist pump, McIlroy celebrates his playoff win on Sunday at Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai.

The reason for the consistency?

“I think maybe more so than say when I first came out on tour, I try 100 percent over every shot, I think because I realise I don’t have as much time left as I used to when I was 20,” McIlroy said. “My concentration is better, and my mental capacity on the golf course is much better than it ever has been, and I think that’s a big key to why I’m able to play consistently week in, week out.”

The first part is true in a literal sense of course, though it is funny to hear Rory say that he doesn’t have as much time left in the game now, considering he’s only 30. It used to be that a lot of players didn’t peak until their 30s, offering McIlroy reason to think his best is still to come. Then Tiger Woods and the generation that followed his came along. Now players are winning sooner than ever.

Still, history shows that much, if not most, success comes in those “middle” years of a career. The 30s is the decade when Arnold Palmer won 44 of his 62 PGA Tour titles, Ben Hogan won 43 of 64, Jack Nicklaus won 38 of 73 and Tiger won 33 of 82, a total that would surely be higher if not for a litany of injuries and personal issues.

Sunday’s win by McIlroy was his third since turning 30 in May of this year.

The second part of McIlroy’s comments about his concentration on the golf course being the best of his career is also spot on.

In Shanghai, McIlroy played bogey-free golf over his final 39 holes and closed with a four-under 68. It took a superb effort by a flu-stricken Schauffele, who birdied two of his final four holes, including the 18th, to chase him down. and even then it wasn’t enough. McIlroy smoked a driver down the fairway on the same hole in the playoff, hit 4-iron to 25 feet and two-putted for birdie and the victory.

Ben Jared
It wasn’t Tiger Woods at the 2018 Tour Championship, but the fans following McIlroy on the 18th hole at the WGC-HSBC Champions gave his 18th career PGA Tour title a special feel

McIlroy had similarly impressive performances at the Tour Championship, where he avenged a loss to Koepka at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude the month before, and at the Players, where two late birdies capped a final-round 70 and led to a one-stroke victory.

No longer does he seem to be making the same mental mistakes that cost him more titles in recent years.

“Over the last [few] years, I feel for the most part, and there’s been times where I haven’t, but for the most part, I’ve been able to get the best out of myself when I’ve needed it, and that’s been a learning curve for me,” McIlroy said on Sunday. “That’s something that didn’t come quite as naturally to me at the start of my career. But I’ve had enough experience, and I’ve got a lot of great memories to draw back on.”

During the last few years, though, he’s also had injuries, equipment changes and life changes, with his very public split from tennis star Caroline Wozniacki, followed by his marriage to Erica Stoll in 2017. Healthy, and settled on and off the course, however, McIlroy’s best years might be upon us.

Along with that rivalry with Koepka.

“I’m excited for the future,” McIlroy said. “I feel like this year compares to 2014, 2015, but I don’t see any reason why I can’t go ahead and have an even better year next year.”

The post The reason behind Rory McIlroy’s consistency in 2019 is why he’s so confident about 2020 (and beyond) appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
Phil Mickelson climbed 10 spots on the leaderboard with a final-round 68 at the WGC-HSBC Champions. It wasn’t enough, though, to keep from falling below a certain level in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in more than a quarter-century.

Mickelson’s remarkable run of being in the OWGR’s top 50 is projected to come to an end when the weekly ranking comes out on Monday. The five-time major champ first entered the top 50 on Nov. 23, 1996, after a runner-up finish at the Casio World Open in Japan.

Ironically, his amazing streak was snapped by a runner-up finish in Japan as well. Shugo Imahira’s solo second at the Mynavi ABC Championship on the Japan Golf Tour will move the 27-year-old to No. 50, bumping the 49-year-old Hall-of-Famer.

Twitter’s Official World Golf Ranking guru @Nosferatu first pointed out the situation on Sunday:

?BREAKING

Shugo Imahira finishes runner up in Japan which is enough to move him past Phil in the world rankings.

It’s an end of an era!@PhilMickelson‘s uninterrupted 1353 weeks (since 28 Nov 1993) inside the top 50 in #OWGR comes to an end!

What a REMARKABLE achievement

— Nosferatu (@VC606) November 3, 2019

And projected what the new OWGR will look like with Rory McIlroy closing the gap on World No. 1 Brooks Koepka thanks to his latest WGC win:

#OWGR update after week #44 (~top 45):

1BK 11.4673
2Rory ? 10.3837
3DJ
4JT
5Rahm
6Cantlay
7?
8?
9Xander
10Bryson
11Webb
12Frankie
13Casey
14Finau
15Reed
16Woodland
17Scott
18Tommy
19Lowry
20Hideki
23Louis
25MattFitz
35Ancer
42Spieth
———–
50Imahira
51?

— Nosferatu (@VC606) November 3, 2019

Mickelson jumped to No. 17 with a win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am, the 44th of his PGA Tour career. But he’s recorded just one top top-25 finish since—a T-18 at the Masters—while missing the cut eight times.

“It was a good run,” Mickelson told the Associated Press after Sunday’s round in Shanghai. “But I’ll be back.”

The post Phil Mickelson’s remarkable 26-year world ranking streak comes to an end at WGC-HSBC Champions appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

McIlroy started the week in 11th place on the PGA Tour in career earnings list with $49,285,260, a little more than $35,000 behind No. 10 Ernie Els. Given the generous $10.25 million prize money payout in China—where the winner took home $1.745 million and last place got $45,000—McIlroy was guaranteed to pass Els and move into the top 10 so long as he finished his round. However, if McIlroy won, or even remained in the top five, he had the chance to move even higher up the all-time earnings leader board.

In ninth place on the career money list was Sergio Garcia at $49,950,005. Garcia was playing this week and started the final round in T-38 but a closing 75 dropped him to T-58. This allowed McIlroy to easily jump his European Ryder Cup teammate.

In eighth place was Matt Kuchar at $50,002,667. Kuchar was not in the field, so McIlroy could push past him as well, provided Rory won or had a solo second-place finish. With Rory’s closing 68, and then his playoff birdie, to beat Xander Schauffele, it was mission accomplished.

Here’s the WGC-HSBC Champions prize money payout for every place in the entire field in Shanghai.

Win: Rory McIlroy, 269/-19, $1,745,000.00
2: Xander Schauffele, 269/-19, $1,095,000.00
3: Louis Oosthuizen, 271/-17, $602,000.00
T-4: Abraham Ancer, 273/-15, $370,000.00
T-4: Victor Perez, 273/-15, $370,000.00
T-4: Matthias Schwab, 273/-15, $370,000.00
7: Matthew Fitzpatrick, 274/-14, $256,000.00
T-8: Patrick Reed, 276/-12, $200,333.34
T-8: Jason Kokrak, 276/-12, $200,333.33
T-8: Paul Waring, 276/-12, $200,333.33
T-11: Sungjae Im, 277/-11, $155,000.00
T-11: Hideki Matsuyama, 277/-11, $155,000.00
T-11: Adam Scott, 277/-11, $155,000.00
T-14: Byeong Hun An, 278/-10, $127,000.00
T-14: Tyrrell Hatton, 278/-10, $127,000.00
T-14: Jazz Janewattananond, 278/-10, $127,000.00
T-17: Christiaan Bezuidenhout, 279/-9, $111,000.00
T-17: Robert MacIntyre, 279/-9, $111,000.00
T-17: Carl Yuan, 279/-9, $111,000.00
T-20: Corey Conners, 280/-8, $99,000.00
T-20: Henrik Stenson, 280/-8, $99,000.00
T-22: Masahiro Kawamura, 281/-7, $92,500.00
T-22: Francesco Molinari, 281/-7, $92,500.00
T-24: Keegan Bradley, 282/-6, $85,000.00
T-24: Billy Horschel, 282/-6, $85,000.00
T-24: Haotong Li, 282/-6, $85,000.00
T-24: J.T. Poston, 282/-6, $85,000.00
T-28: Scott Hend, 283/-5, $76,666.67
T-28: Kurt Kitayama, 283/-5, $76,666.67
T-28: Phil Mickelson, 283/-5, $76,666.67
T-28: Bubba Watson, 283/-5, $76,666.67
T-28: Kevin Kisner, 283/-5, $76,666.66
T-28: Justin Rose, 283/-5, $76,666.66
T-34: Jorge Campillo, 284/-4, $72,500.00
T-34: Joost Luiten, 284/-4, $72,500.00
T-36: Charles Howell III, 285/-3, $70,500.00
T-36: Andrew Putnam, 285/-3, $70,500.00
T-38: Yosuke Asaji, 286/-2, $67,000.00
T-38: Paul Casey, 286/-2, $67,000.00
T-38: Michael Lorenzo-Vera, 286/-2, $67,000.00
T-38: Erik van Rooyen, 286/-2, $67,000.00
T-38: Xinjun Zhang, 286/-2, $67,000.00
T-43: Bryce Easton, 287/-1, $63,000.00
T-43: Shane Lowry, 287/-1, $63,000.00
T-43: Jordan Spieth, 287/-1, $63,000.00
T-46: Adam Hadwin, 288/E, $60,000.00
T-46: Chan Kim, 288/E, $60,000.00
T-46: Romain Langasque, 288/E, $60,000.00
T-49: Lucas Glover, 289/+1, $56,500.00
T-49: Mikumu Horikawa, 289/+1, $56,500.00
T-49: Andrea Pavan, 289/+1, $56,500.00
T-49: Bernd Wiesberger, 289/+1, $56,500.00
T-53: Tony Finau, 290/+2, $52,875.00
T-53: Tommy Fleetwood, 290/+2, $52,875.00
T-53: Sergio Garcia, 290/+2, $52,875.00
T-53: Justin Harding, 290/+2, $52,875.00
T-57: Rafa Cabrera Bello, 291/+3, $51,000.00|
T-57: Jake McLeod, 291/+3, $51,000.00
T-57: Neil Schietekat, 291/+3, $51,000.00
T-60: Jbe’ Kruger, 292/+4, $49,150.00
T-60: Chez Reavie, 292/+4, $49,150.00
T-60: Cameron Smith, 292/+4, $49,150.00
T-60: Kevin Tway, 292/+4, $49,150.00
T-60: Matt Wallace, 292/+4, $49,150.00
T-65: Benjamin Hebert, 294/+6, $48,125.00
T-65: Tae Hee Lee, 294/+6, $48,125.00
T-67: Zecheng Dou, 295/+7, $47,500.00
T-67: Ryo Ishikawa, 295/+7, $47,500.00
T-67: Matthew Millar, 295/+7, $47,500.00
T-70: Zhengkai Bai, 296/+8, $46,875.00
T-70: Richard Sterne, 296/+8, $46,875.00
72: Zander Lombard, 298/+10, $46,500.00
T-73: Ashun Wu, 299/+11, $46,000.00
T-73: WC Liang, 299/+11, $46,000.00
T-73: Danny Willett, 299/+11, $46,000.00
76: Yi Keun Chang, 304/+16, $45,500.00
77: Daniel Nisbet, 309/+21, $45,250.00

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Rory McIlroy joked earlier in the week he was “never” going to be catching Tiger Woods and Sam Snead on the PGA Tour’s all-time victory list. What he didn’t say, though, was that he intended to stop winning any time soon.

For the third straight day in Shanghai, the 30-year-old Northern Irishman shot a five-under 67, with his Saturday score moving him to the top of the leader board at the WGC-HSBC Champions, one stroke ahead of Louis Oosthuizen.

“I probably played the best today that I’ve played all week,” said McIlroy of his bogey-free round at Sheshan International. “I drove the ball well. Hitting my irons pretty good for the most part. I feel like I didn’t quite get as much out of the round as I could have but I’m not going to complain. I’m in the lead going into tomorrow, so yeah, just need to rest up and try to get out there and play another good, solid round of golf.”

The reigning PGA Tour player of the year and FedEx Cup champion is eyeing his 18th career tour title and his fourth in the 2019 calendar year. As impressive as that sounds, McIlroy’s record could be even better. The most recent time he played with a solo 54-hole lead was the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, only to be passed by Brooks Koepka.

McIlroy will have to be wary of those behind him again this time. Oosthuizen sits one back after rounds of 68-69-65. Tied for third two are defending champion Xander Schauffele (Saturday 68) and second-round leader Matt Fitzpatrick (70).

McIlroy says the intent is take the mindset he had at the RBC Canadian Open, where he closed strong with a Sunday 61 to march to a seven-stroke win.

“I want to go out there and be committed, play aggressively, and shoot a good number,” said McIlroy, who has had 15 top-10 finishes in PGA Tour events in 2019. “I took a lot from the win in Canada earlier this year. I went out tied for the lead, and I just said from the start, ‘I’m going to keep my foot down and I’m going to go for everything.’ It was a good lesson that when you do have something right there, in front of you, a tournament to win or something to achieve, you just have to grab it with both hands, and that’s what I’ll do tomorrow.”

McIlroy’s overall numbers remain solid, having converted seven of 12 career 54-hole leads on tour, and six out of 10 when he’s had the lead alone. He’s also had an impressive career record at the WGC-HSBC with five top-10s in seven starts.

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By Ryan Herrington
Haotong Li sits tied for 15th after 54 holes of the WGC-HSBC Champions, nine strokes back of Rory McIlroy. It’s a position few could hardly have imagined the 24-year-old Chinese native would be in after 42 holes.

Li, the leader of the tournament after the first round, made five birdies over his first six holes at Sheshan International to start his third round on Saturday. He had taken the lead at 13 under and bolstered the storyline many in Shanghai had hoped to see play out: one of China’s own winning the title in the most prestigious golf tournament held in the country.

Despite bogeys on the eighth and 10th hole, Li still had the local galleries excited … until the 13th hole. On the 437-yard par 4, Li was in a greenside bunker with his approach and got a little cute with his third shot.

Haotong Li picked his bunker shot on the 13th hole clean, and his ball found the water.

Sitting T4 and two shots back at the time, he finished with a triple bogey, which dropped him 5 shots off the lead.

He is currently -8 and T10 at WGC-HSBC Champions. pic.twitter.com/cCIJYIZzDp

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 2, 2019

As the commentators point out, Li’s bladed sand shot found the penalty area over the green, ultimately leading to a disastrous triple-bogey 7. To his credit, he bounced back with a birdie on the 14th, but then made three more bogeys to close out a two-over 74. The frustrating finish resulted in a highly disappointing 32-42 front-nine/back-nine split for his round and left him at six under for the tournament.

The post This bladed bunker shot pretty much ended the dream of Haotong Li winning the WGC-HSBC Champions at home in China appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

No doubt Rory McIlroy, the 54-hole leader at the WGC-HSBC Champions, will be more focused on the adding to his PGA Tour victory mark on Sunday than his career prize money total. But he’ll be hitting a career milestone on the later front regardless of whether his wins or not at Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai.

McIlroy starts the final round 11th on the PGA Tour in career earnings with $49,285,260, a little more than $35,000 behind No. 10 Ernie Els. Given the generous $10.25 million WGC-HSBC Champions prize money payout in China—where the winner takes home $1.745 million and the last place gets $45,000—McIlroy is guaranteed to pass Els and move into the top 10 so long as he finishes his round. However, if McIlroy were to win, or even remain in the top five, he has the chance to move even higher up the all-time earnings leader board.

In ninth place on the career money list is Sergio Garcia at $49,950,005. Garcia is playing this week, but started the final round in T-38, giving McIlroy an opportunity to jump his European Ryder Cup teammate.

In eighth place is Matt Kuchar at $50,002,667. Kuchar is not in the field, so McIlroy can push past him as well, provided Rory wins or has a solo second-place finish.

Here’s the WGC-HSBC Champions prize money payout for every place in the entire field in Shanghai. We’ll update the totals for each individual golfer after the tournament ends.

Win: $1,745,000
2: $1,095,000
3: $602,000
4: $444,000
5: $368,000
6: $298,000
7: $256,000
8: $225,000
9: $199,000
10: $177,000
11: $166,000
12: $155,000
13: $144,000
14: $134,000
15: $126,000
16: $121,000
17: $116,000
18: $111,000
19: $106,000
20: $101,000
21: $97,000
22: $94,000
23: $91,000
24: $88,000
25: $86,000
26: $84,000
27: $82,000
28: $80,000
29: $78,000
30: $77,000
31: $76,000
32: $75,000
33: $74,000
34: $73,000
35: $72,000
36: $71,000
37: $70,000
38: $69,000
39: $68,000
40: $67,000
41: $66,000
42: $65,000
43: $64,000
44: $63,000
45: $62,000
46: $61,000
47: $60,000
48: $59,000
49: $58,000
50: $57,000
51: $56,000
52: $55,000
53: $54,000
54: $53,000
55: $52,500
56: $52,000
57: $51,500
58: $51,000
59: $50,500
60: $50,000
61: $49,500
62: $49,000
63: $48,750
64: $48,500
65: $48,250
66: $48,000
67: $47,750
68: $47,500
69: $47,250
70: $47,000
71: $46,750
72: $46,500
73: $46,250
74: $46,000
75: $45,750
76: $45,500
77: $45,250
78: $45,000

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