After missing eight of his last eleven cuts, Haotong Li seems to have turned a corner. At TPC Toronto, he climbed 30 places up the leaderboard by the end of round 2 and sits second overall at 9 under par. Certainly, changing the approach to the day has helped him enough. But it is his figuring out the mental side of things that has truly helped him, as he revealed on Friday.

“I’ve been struggling for two months,” Li told the reporters after finishing his second round. “I missed like one or two cuts in a row for like probably eight events already. And I felt like I played quite decently. To be honest, the way I hit off the tee is just the same as today, but somehow, just on the last five or 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. I literally don’t even think; I literally just tell that guy, ‘f— off, leave me alone’. I’m sorry about my language, but that’s what it is, yeah.”

Li has changed many things entering the 2026 RBC Open. First, he is staying at the property that allows him to sleep an additional hour every morning. His iron play has also improved as he ranks second in the field in strokes-gained/approach. Another difference this week is his bag man. With his regular caddie, Jady de Beer, facing visa issues, Li has a one-week substitute in Geno Bonnalie (former caddie for Joel Dahmen). So far, Li seems impressed with the new bag man.

“Yeah, shoutout to him as well because my own caddie couldn’t make it to Canada because of visa issues. So Geno’s very, very good on some of the club selections. It was incredible, to be fair. There’s definitely three or four shots that he saved. I asked him, Do you like this one? But he talked me into changing to the other one, and it actually worked out very well, so he’s a good caddie.”

But more importantly, he has learned how to stay in the present, and it has certainly helped him mid-tournament on Friday itself.

As Li mentioned, his bad side overtakes the good performance by the time he reaches the final few holes. He made his second bogey of the day on the eighth, too. But he probably remembered what his psychologist advised and got over it.

It is about time, of course, considering how promising his back-to-back top-11 finishes at the American Express and the Farmers Insurance Open in January made 2026 look like his year. Until everything came tumbling down like it always has.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Li faced a similar mental health challenge. Due to the restrictions, he couldn’t go back to China and had to stay in Dubai. He described the experience as too difficult, especially the psychological suffering. He admitted he felt many things were not in control. The effect of those challenges was also visible in his game.

He faced his lowest during the Kenya Savannah Classic in March 2021. He hit four drivers out of bounds on a single hole. He even stopped playing for four months. In fact, things got so distressful for him that he told his family he would walk away from the sport entirely if things did not change in 2022.

But over the years, he has made improvements. He won the BMW International Open in Germany in 2022. Three years later, he finished T4 at the Open Championship at Royal Portrush in 2025.

The technique his psychologist is using is often a recognized approach in sports psychology. The Association of Applied Sports Psychology notes that athletes perform best when fully engaged in the present moment. Self-compassion allows players to untangle themselves from negative thoughts rather than carrying the emotional weight of self-criticism through the round. Externalizing the “bad version” of yourself helps Li detach himself from a loop of negative emotions.

Golf Digest reported that there’s a growing number of tour players who are now seeking professional psychological support. Sports psychologist Julie Elion, who has worked with Wyndham Clark and other tour players, told Golf.com that a recurring challenge players face is managing the pressure they place on themselves after reaching success.

Despite a difficult stretch, Li has always managed to keep things light.

His Masters this year was disastrous. His ball found the Augusta woods at one point, and overall, it was a disappointing game. But he took it in stride. He later posted a humorous side-by-side comparison of himself standing in thick Augusta greenery to Henri Rousseau’s famous jungle painting. It is the same attitude he has carried throughout his game.

Now, he’s at the RBC Canadian Open and looks forward to his game over the weekend.