After calling out the American team for “cursing at us” on Saturday at the Presidents Cup, International team star Tom Kim said he made sure to clear the air with U.S. captain Jim Furyk as well as Xander Schauffele after his Sunday singles match against Sam Burns wrapped up at Royal Montreal.
Kim, who finished the week with a record of 1-2-1, was part of a testy afternoon foursomes match on Saturday evening against U.S. stalwarts Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay. Kim’s partner, Si Woo Kim, pulled off a heroic chip-in birdie at the par-3 16th, then hit the American team with his favourite NBA player Stephen Curry’s famous “night night” celebration. The one glaring problem with that was the match had just been tied and there were still two holes to play.
Unfortunately for the Kim pairing, they lost the 18th after halving 17 on a Cantlay birdie, making the “night night” celebration look foolish in retrospect. Some members of the U.S. side, particularly Wyndham Clark, clearly took offence. Clark could be seen doing the celebration after Cantlay and Schauffele secured the full point, and then he ended up on a social media battle with International team member Byeong Hun An.
“As it got towards the end, it got a little feisty out there,” Tom Kim said Saturday night. “I could hear some players cursing at us. That part wasn’t really — I don’t think there was good sportsmanship there. But it’s all part of the fun. I understand it.”
Kim clarified that he had plenty of fun showing some emotion, too, but he still believed the Americans crossed a line. He did not clarify what was said, nor who said it, though.
“You see me out there throwing fist pumps and jumping on the green,” he added. “It’s all part of it, I get it. I just don’t think there’s a need to look at someone and curse at them. I just don’t think there’s a need for it.”
Kim did say he didn’t want his comments to come across as negative, but they did draw plenty of criticism on social media. On Sunday, he made it a point to seek out Furyk and Schauffele to explain exactly what he meant by his comments, and he revealed what he said to them in the International team’s post-Presidents Cup press conference.
“I just told him [Schauffele] like, hey, I didn’t mean it to go in such a negative way,” said Kim. “If it did, I just said I’m sorry. It was just I felt like what I heard yesterday, some comments that I’ve heard was at that time, just coming off the green, it came to me so personally and I just felt like it was right to share.
“Definitely, I didn’t really at that time, just didn’t think it would be so negative. I really didn’t mean to — because when I played with Patrick and Xander, obviously we’ve battled a few times and they’ve always been such great competitors. They’ve never — I’ve always felt like there’s such a good sportsmanship between us. It was just outside the ropes, and I felt like that was a little misunderstanding on my part, which I should have explained better. So I went to him and I said, I didn’t mean it that way. I apologise if it came out wrongly. It was just this and this happened, but if it affected you guys so negatively, I really do apologise. I didn’t mean to do it in that way.
“This event is all about doing things you would never do and creating energy and doing all these things. I do certain things on the greens when I make putts, and I expect them to do the same thing. It’s all part of the game. It was just about that.”
Main Image: IconSportswire
