Unruly Beijing fans ruin Li's chances of a top finish
The mainland's lone contender in the final round had the 'advantage' of a lot of home support, but yesterday the livid young star said the unruly fans put him off his game and he plummeted down the leader board on the last day.
'I am very angry. It was ridiculous. You think it would be good to have a lot of support, yet here it really disturbed me and worked against me,' said Li Chao (pictured), who had three solid rounds of even par under his belt before hitting a disastrous 78 yesterday to leave him six over for the tournament.
'People were taking photographs just as I was hitting a shot. Mobiles phones were going off, there was lots of noise. It distracted me and I got really angry, and that really affected my game,' the 25-year-old Beijinger said.
'I realise now I really have to learn to cope with the crowd and not let their behaviour get to me. Other players like Liang Wenchong are more experienced and handle things like that very well.' The nightmare round meant he only took home prize money of US$5,850, whereas he would have collected more than US$14,000 had he held par.
