Caddy says the US players are in shock, ‘very much in love’ with Tom Kim
Getty Images
On paper, this year’s Presidents Cup looked like another challenge, with the Americans winning 18.5-11.5 to win their 10th and improve their all-time record to 13-1-1 in Internationals.
But those few days at the Royal Montreal Golf Club in Montreal, Quebec, last month were anything but.
There was that witness exchange between Scottie Scheffler and Tom Kim during Thursday’s opener, and Kim made headlines when he said he could hear “the other players cursing” during a thrilling foursomes match where Xander Schauffle and Patrick Cantlay defeated Kim and Si. Woo Kim 1 up on Saturday evening. As the last game on the course, players from both teams were following and watching.
“I don’t think there was a good game there,” said Tom Kim. His insults and comments on sports were widely circulated.
“I felt like me and Pat, we treated the Kims with great respect,” said Schauffele. “We try to calm people down when they are hitting. We try to calm the crowd when we hit. It was fair take, give and go. I don’t know if anyone was doing that. I do not believe that any of our boys would do such a thing. So I’m not sure what he was hearing.”
Paul Tesori, Tom Kim’s actor, offered his opinion on the controversy when he joined Brian Crowell and Frank Darby on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio on Sunday.
“Obviously, I saw three situations where members of the American team met Tom and yes, they insulted him and were selfish,” Tesori said. “And at the end of the day, nobody wants that. The two guys who did it, I don’t think that’s in their nature at all. I know one of them apologized, which is very nice. The heat of the moment got to him. But I want to say something about that. When Tom said that at Saturday’s press conference, I didn’t know he had already done it. And when he came in, he shared with me what he did, and this is part of what a 52-year-old veteran would share with a 22-year-old. I said, Tom, you have every right to feel the way you did.
“One of them, I saw for myself. And the feeling I had inside was New York Bethpagey. I wanted to react physically, and I was saddened by what happened, but at the end of the day I know the character of the person this happened to and I don’t believe that’s the case, and Tom handled it really well. Now, there is no reason for him to go into the media, and we know in the world we live in now even if there is video evidence of what happened, half of the world will think he is still a child and the other half will walk away. to think that you are working.”
Tesori said that “only two guys out of 24 are acting in a way that I would be ashamed of,” but added that Kim needs to have a thick skin.
“At the end of the day, he can’t go to the media and say that,” Tesori said. “You have to go and talk to your captain about it, go and talk to your teammates about it, and it’s something to learn from Tom. And I think that’s what it comes down to. “
Kim was also involved in an incident with Scheffler during Thursday’s four-ball session. Kim cheered after making a long birdie putt on the 7th hole, but Scheffler bogeyed it again after he made a birdie over him, yelling “What’s that?” by Kim.
On the 8th, Kim made another birdie and followed it up with yet another birdie putt, but Kim and Sungjae Im didn’t stick around to see Scheffler put out, instead walking to the 9th green.
“Well, that depends on the bad behavior there,” commentator Paul McGinley said on the radio. “That’s disrespectful, in my opinion. I know it’s competitive out there. But that goes to show you there’s an edge here that isn’t all fun and games. “
On PGA Tour Radio Sunday, Tesori said Kim and Im walked to No. 9 after assistant captain Camilo Villegas told them to do so.
“Looking at Camilo from the outside, he thought, ‘Oh, my lord, this is getting bad; this is to be human; this is going to go bad and I’m going to take these guys out because if Scottie makes that 9-footer, he’s going to look right at Tom,’” Tesori said. “Camilo admitted that he was wrong. He shouldn’t have done that. His mistake was, ‘I have to get them out of this situation.'”
US assistant captain Kevin Kisner was near the green when it happened. He was on Barstool’s Fore Play Podcast last week and called the movement the “Bush League.” He said he spoke to Villegas a few days later to clear everything up.
“He was like, ‘Dude, I’ll be honest with you, when I saw Scottie [yell back on 7]I am a little afraid of my boys; that looked like the scariest Scottie Scheffer I’ve ever seen, so I didn’t want him to make another putt and have something go wrong,’” Kisner said. “I’d say, I’ll take your word for it, but I still thought it was bull–.”
Source link