China’s Li Haotong stole a march in the race to become the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the year with a share of second at the Turkish Airlines Open.
Li went in to the first event of the Final Series seven places behind Korea's Soomin Lee, four back of Jeunghun Wang and one behind Brandon Stone on the Race to Dubai, with one of the four looking certain to collect an award previously won by the likes of Martin Kaymer, Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter.
A career-best check of € 557,077 in Antalya means the Volvo China Open winner has now pulled clear of his rivals, and after finishing three shots behind runaway winner Thorbjørn Olesen said: “It's fantastic for me. I think I already do my best, and just like I said yesterday, only top five is really, really good for me.
“Actually today is quite a surprise for me because back nine, I don't know, I just shot like five under, something like that. Yeah, it was a great round.
“I made like four birdies in a row, after the fourth one, I thought, really, I make four birdies in a row. I said, wow. Yeah, it’s a pretty good day.
“I think still need relax for every week. Don't be like, try too hard, like last week. It's kind of getting way better this week. I got a lot of World Ranking points and a lot of money, especially! Cool.”
