Team USA’s genius move rattles rival
TEAM USA have their backs up against the wall and need to pull out all the stops in order to try and level proceedings against the International Team.
They didn't waste anytime getting back into it on day three with Justin Thomas getting into "the head" of International player Haotong Li.
Li didn't play in the opening two days, but made his first appearance on Saturday.
When he lost track of the order of play, he was called out by his American rivals.
On the second hole of the day, Li hit his drive into the trees and walked up and punched the ball out on to the fairway.
Thomas approached an official to clarify it wasn't Li's turn and then opted to enforce a little-known rule.
In match play there's no penalty if a player plays out of turn, but the opponent can decide to recall the shot and force the player to play in the correct order instead.
Of course that's what Thomas and Team USA decided and Li's second chance went pear-shaped.
His second attempt struck a tree branch and shot his ball backwards before he then hit another tree on his next shot.
Early gamesmanship from usa as they enforce (as is their right) @haotong_li to return his ball to the trees and re hit for playing out of turn. First attempt was a great escape... but now he’s failed to escape and it’s a potentially huge move to get in the rookies head.
— Ben Everill (@BEverillPGATOUR) December 13, 2019
SATURDAY'S FOUR-BALLS PAIRINGS + TEE TIMES
7:02am: Marc Leishman and Haotong Li vs Justin Thomas and Ricky Fowler
7:16am: Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay vs Sungjaie Im and Abraham Ancer
7:30am: Hideki Matsuyama and C.T. Pan vs Patrick Reed Webb Simpson
7:44am: Matt Kuchar and Tony Finau vs Adam Scott and Byeong Hun An
OUT: Hadwin, Niemann, Oosthuizen, Smith
OUT: Dechambeau, Johnson, Woodland and Woods
Haotong Li's Presidents Cup, so far:
— Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier) December 13, 2019
-Benched on Day 1
-Benched on Day 2
-Hits driver against captain's orders on 1st hole
-Plays out of order (into the woods)
-Hits it backwards off a tree pic.twitter.com/T3FcwCWr2I
