Pro wants to go over trees. Caddie begs for safe play. Then comes smile

Iona Stephen gave you a heads-up. Walking with Haotong Li and his caddie, she’d overheard their tussle and knew what was about to go down. 

“You want to hold onto your hats, guys,” she said, “because this could be entertaining.”

The scene had to be during Thursday’s first round of the Magical Kenya Open, an event on the DP World Open. What didn’t it have, should entertainment be your thing?

You want a mishit tee ball? You got a mishit tee ball. On the 454-yard, par-4 12th at Muthaiga Golf Club in Nairobi, Kenya, Li went left. His ball settled under the branches of a shortish tree. In front of it were more trees. In front of them was a bunker guarding the left side of the green. Past that was a pin on the back-left portion of the green. Key, though, to our story was what was to the right — open fairway. 

Would you get a, shall we say, daring player then? You did get a daring player. Li, according to Stephen on the Golf Channel broadcast, was chomping at the bit to go up and over the vegetation. But he wasn’t carrying his own bag, of course. 

So would you get some player-caddie interaction? You did get some player-caddie interaction. Li’s caddie, Stephen said, wanted the safe play. He wanted him to go right, pitch on, maybe make a four, but dodge the big number.     

“Haotong walked up to his ball,” Stephen said on the broadcast, “and was just absolutely going forward. There was a lot of negotiating going on with the caddie, trying to plead with him to go down the right-hand side, give himself a chance, but he’s insistent — he’s going to try and take it up and over these trees.”

So who won?

Maybe you.  

On the shot, after a brief stepback due to a gust of wind, Li took three looks up toward his opening, the final one lasting a bit longer. Was he really going to do this, he seemingly thought. He was. He fired. On his follow-through, his club recoiled back out in front of him.  

His ball, meanwhile, navigated through the trees before finishing on the right side of the hole, about 30 feet from the hole. While watching from a few steps to his right, Li started to laugh. He was right. Of course, it wasn’t as if the caddie was wrong. 

But would you get a reminder of the outcome?  

You did. With a TV camera near him, Li joked to his caddie:

“Oh, luckily I did not listen to you, hey?”

Said announcer Tony Johnstone on the broadcast in response: “To the caddie, let that be a lesson to you: Trust your boss. Got that up so fast. … And with momentum. Classy. Let that be a lesson to you. I love it.”

From there, Li two-putted, and he shot a one-over 71. He’ll start Friday’s second round nine strokes behind leaders John Parry and Benjamin Hebert.