As a wise man once said of professional golf, you have to harness in the good energy and block out the bad. Harness. Energy. Block. Bad. This is not the advice Haotong Li’s psychologist gave him recently, but it seems to be what he’s doing this week at the RBC Canadian Open.
Li, who entered this week having missed eight of his last 11 cuts, opened with a 67 at TPC Toronto on Thursday and followed that up with a six-under 64 on Friday, putting him in a tie for second at nine under. He gave plenty of credit to his one-week trial caddie, Geno Bonnalie (former caddie for Joel Dahmen), who is filling in due to visa issues with his regular bag man Jady de Beer. He’s also staying right on property, which, as Li pointed out after his second round, allows him to get an extra hour of sleep in the morning.
The iron play has helped, too. Li currently ranks second in the field in strokes-gained/approach. But it’s the mental side of the game Li has been able to figure out this week, something that came in handy on the final few holes, when Li made only his second bogey of the day on the eighth (his 17th).
“I just keep telling myself that, bad thoughts don’t come to me, don’t talk to me, leave me alone, and it’s kind of worked so far,” he said.
Li’s been working on getting rid of the bad thoughts with a psychologist, someone he’s turned to during the struggles of the last two months. The 30-year-old started 2026 off very strong with consecutive top-11 finishes at the AMEX and the Farmers Insurance Open, but has fallen on hard times since.
“We [Li and his psychologist] talked about the last two months. I’ve been struggling for two months,” Li said. “I missed like one or two cuts in a row for like probably eight events already. And I felt like I played quite decent. To be honest, the way I hit off the tee is just the same as today, but somehow just on the last five, six holes on a Friday it’s always happening.
“So I need to speak to my psychologist and she said, Once that ‘bad Haotong’ comes in, you just tell him to go away. Which is what I did today, like, even on the back nine, that guy’s there.”
A reporter on site asked, “so on the back nine, you’re thinking to yourself, no bad thoughts.” Li quickly interjected in a hilarious manner.
“No, I literally not even don’t think,” he said. “I literally just tell that guy, f– off, leave me alone. I’m sorry about my language, but, that’s what it is, yeah.”
It’s not quite “Harness. Energy. Block. Bad.”, but it’ll do.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
