Hao Tong Li knows where the story is going within seconds of it starting. he laughed.
Then he interrupts.
“That’s awful, dude,” Lee said. “I hate him.
“I hate him.”
Of course, LI is a joke. Appearing on The Smiley Show podcast this week, he did a lot by retelling a moment from the 2019 Presidents Cup that caused a small stir at the time. The setup is as follows: On the third day of play at Royal Melbourne, Lee and international team partner Marc Leishman faced Americans Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler in a foursome match, and after hitting his tee shot into the trees on the right side of the second hole, Lee punched out – but there was a problem.
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Thomas was not in the hall. There is no penalty for playing out of turn, but according to Rule 6.4a (2), a player may give the offender another hit.
And Thomas and Fowler asked Lee that.
We continue our podcast exchange here (you can listen to the entire episode here). For a little background, know that Lee was playing in the Presidents Cup for the first time and Saturday’s game was his first event.
Host Smiley Kaufman said, “So, Haotong, what does Justin say next to you…? What does he say?”
“Literally, that (expletive) made me play that song again,” Lee said.
“Where did he hit the first shot? Did he hit it back on the play?” Kaufman said.
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“Well, I hit a perfect shot from a small gap, so I thought somebody just makes a play. I’m the only one on the team who played twice. At least the other players played three times. So it’s my first game and I’m very excited. But I don’t know anything about that rule. You know, I learned it now. And I was like, okay, I like to play quick, so I’m going to play some ready golf.”
Kaufman said: “I agree.”
Hao Tong: “Yeah, I did it. Then the boss looked at me and said, ‘Hao Tong, I don’t think you can play that game.'” And I said, “What do you mean?” JT says, “This is match play.” I said, “Yeah, what do you mean?” He said, “Yeah, you’re going to play again.” I was like, “What (expletive) are you talking about?” ”
Kaufman said, “So the rules people said, ‘Yeah, Haotong, you’ve got to get another shot?'”
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Lee said: “Yeah, and the rules guy came and reeled it in and said, “Oh, we have to play it again.” What do you think? Hit a tree. And they were both laughing so hard at me. ”
However, Lee’s retelling ended well.
He says he is now friends with Fowler and Thomas.
Editor’s Note: Click to listen to the entire episode of “The Smylie Show” with Lee. here.
In this post, a rule violation causes…lol. “He’s the worst. I hate him” appeared first on Golf.
