Haotong Li has admitted that he tried to drive the ball like Bryson DeChambeau during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like most people, Li spent a lot of time at home without a normal day-to-day routine.
He then turned to copying DeChambeau’s powerful golf swing in his spare time, and it completely backfired.
Li blames this experiment for the downfall in his game when he eventually returned to DP World Tour competition.
Haotong Li’s failed Bryson DeChambeau experiment
Many amateur golfers will have tried to copy DeChambeau on the driving range, but not tour-level professionals.
It is not surprising that Li’s attempt to change a golf swing that had gotten him to the DP World Tour did not work.
He revealed to Smylie Kaufman that his obsession with hitting “big bombs” like DeChambeau caused a major problem.
“I was back in China and had nothing to do, so I started watching Bryson do a lot of things,” Li said.
“I started trying to hit big bombs and kind of f—– up my swing. I started hitting those big snap hooks with like 185 [miles per hour] average ball speed.”
Thankfully, Li can laugh about the situation now because he had an excellent 2025 season and is ranked in the top 70 in the world.
Robert MacIntyre mocked Haotong Li’s driving
Li also revealed that Robert MacIntyre used to joke about his problematic driving during DP World Tour events.
“I actually felt at one stage like I couldn’t even make the backswing,” he added. “I couldn’t even pull the trigger.
“It didn’t matter how wide the course was. I think I played a lot of golf during that time with Robert MacIntyre back in Europe.
“He always joked with me, ‘Bro, the fairway is right here, not over there.'”
MacIntyre and Li both have a great sense of humour, so you can imagine them laughing on the golf course.
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