With the Ras Al Khaimah Classic in the UAE coming to an end on Sunday, the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) has come to an end to the competition for the first stage of the 2022 "Middle East Quadrilogy".
In the List of Exemption Categories of DP Tour players updated in the early hours of Beijing time this morning, the membership of China's famous Li Haotong has undergone a major change - from the original category 3a to category 16-i. This means that for the next 8 months of the 2021-22 season, Li Haotong will participate in the remaining fixtures of the DP Tour with this pick.
What exactly does Category 16-i mean? What kind of impact will it have on the number of Li Haotong's entries?
Li Haotong's exclusive membership category 16(i)
There are more than 400 players on the DP Tour's entry list. For ordinary events like last week's Ras Al Khaimah Classic, there were only 132 players in a single leg. There are more monks and fewer porridges, so the major tour will divide all players into different categories and serial numbers according to their grades and qualifications, relying on a similar "ranking" method to determine who can participate.
From Category 1 of "Dubai Competition Past Champions/Grand Slam Winners", Category 2 of "Rolex Series/World Championship Winners"... All the way to the last category of "Historical Champions and Others" PC, more than 400 players were divided into a total of 25 categories according to the sequence number. The higher the category and the earlier the sequence number, the more likely it is to be lined up in a match's lineup.
Among them, the category 10 of the "Dubai Competition Top 116" is a "life and death threshold" related to the rice bowl, and the players who rank in this position can basically be shortlisted for most DP Tour events and are regarded as "card guarantee" success. Players below this rank can only hope that the players in front of them will not register to be able to enter the list of a match...
Before the 2021/2022 season, Li Haotong and Wu Ashun were both seeded players in Category 3, that is, the "champions of the last two seasons", and could be ranked in the competition throughout the year. Although the performance of the two Chinese celebrities last season was not outstanding, theoretically unable to retain category 3 qualifications, but because they returned to China last year to participate in the National Games or Olympic training, because the epidemic prevention and isolation "force majeure" missed many events, the DP Tour specially gave Li Haotong and Wu Ashun a special category 3a - that is, in the way of "isolation days for the number of games", in the 2021/2022 season, the two were given some reserved category 3 qualifications to "make up", of which, Li Haotong can participate in the first 4 races in 2022, and Wu Ashun is in the first 8 races.
In other words, Li Haotong and Wu Ashun's 2021 season is "not over yet." After participating in 4 and 8 races, the accumulated Dubai Race Points must be added to the points already earned in the previous season to obtain a "total score", and then "re-qualified" according to the entry list to obtain the final membership category of the two people.
As of last week's Ras Al Khaimah Classic, Li Haotong's 4 "member 3a quota" has been used, 4 races, he accumulated 216.4 points in Dubai competition points, but because last season's points were only 89.6 points, the total score of 306 points - compared with the last place in last year's category 10 "card threshold", Scots David Drysdale's 380.5 points. Therefore, in this morning's qualification rearrangement, Li Haotong can only condescend to the category 16 range after almost 182 players.
Li Haotong experienced a period of low tide
Among the 33 players in category 16, there are 4 sub-categories, and Li Haotong is assigned to a special category 16(i) that is only him - this category is specially prepared for "previous category 3 members" - which means that in front of Li Haotong, there are only Three Benjamin Herbert, Ashley Chesters and Renato Pastore in the Dubai Competition 122nd, 124th and 126th. After him, there is a large 29-man army with all the players in categories 16b and 16c. In other words, Li Haotong belongs to the top players in the category 16.
Do not underestimate this difference, the more than 40 games of the DP Tour throughout the year will be divided into 10000 points, 8000 points, 6000 points, 5500 points, 4250 points, 3500 points, 2750 points, 2000 points and other levels according to the total prize money and Dubai point weight of each station. The higher the points, the more likely the players in the top row are to participate, and the more limited the opportunities for players left after category 10 - in the Case of the 4250 Italian Open, the 16 players who can qualify for this DP medium competition may be about 10 people - that is, the players in category 16c may not be able to qualify, but Li Haotong in category 16(i) is very likely to be shortlisted!
If you follow this standard, in the remaining 36 games of the DP Tour this season, there are as many as 22-24 games, Li Haotong has a great chance of being on the list! This is basically equivalent to a "quasi-full card", which not only greatly increases Li Haotong's hopes of maintaining European Tour membership since 2016, but also allows him to arrange the schedule more calmly in the following season.
Li Haotong rebounded strongly in the new season
However, playing iron also needs to be hard. Li Haotong's 216.4 points this year have put him in 26th place in the 2021-22 Dubai competition standings! By last year's standards, as long as he can score around 170 points for the long season ahead — almost a single 3rd place, or a top 7 in two games, or an average of 65th place in 22 games he's possible — he can save his DP Tour entry card!
On Saturday, the DP World Tour released an interview video of Li Haotong on its official website and Twitter. In the interview, Li Haotong admitted that he had experienced a long period of lows and struggles in terms of ball skills and psychology, fortunately, he has now gradually come out of the haze and will reload and start again in 2022.
"I've had Driver Yips for the past two years, but now my kick-off is good. I discovered an energy that I hadn't realized before, and I regained the charm of playing golf and enjoying everything in life. Li Haotong, who has handed over the six-character head 18 times in the past 10 games, said.
DP Tour official interview with Li Haotong
In the huge list of participants in the DP Tour, in addition to Li Haotong, there are three Chinese mainland players. Wu Ashun still has 4 "match quotas" unused, and is still in category 3a, but 201.5 points in 2022 + 282.4 points in 2021, a total of 483.9 points in Dubai points, is enough for him to sit at least on the "full card" qualification in category 10 when he re-qualifies in April.
Zhang Huilin, who won the Membership of the European Tour as the King of the Central Tour Prize, belongs to the category 17 players, behind Wu Ashun and Li Haotong, and in theory, there should be at least 10 or so DP Tour games to participate in, and enjoy the European Tour Second Division Challenge Tour full card qualification.
Shantou youngster Bai Zhengkai, relying on the second-level ranking obtained by winning the 2019 Foshan Open, is in category 20 in the DP Tour member rankings, and should not have too many competitions. However, the 24-year-old has already started playing on the European Challenge Tour this season and has successfully qualified in both matches in South Africa. If he is placed in the top 20 of the Second Division standings at the end of the season, he will successfully enter the DP Tour and qualify for Category 14 membership.
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