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Saturday, January 11, 2025

That Tom Kim controversy? Wyndham Clark says there is more to the story


Saturday's Presidents Cup game with Wyndham Clark Si Woo Kim

Wyndham Clark and Si Woo Kim faced off on Saturday in the foursome at the Presidents Cup.

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We heard Tom Kim’s side of the story.

He went off course hot Saturday night in the Presidents Cup. He and partner Si Woo Kim had just lost one key, electric four match when Patrick Cantlay (paired with Xander Schauffele) holed an 18-foot birdie putt in the fading light at Royal Montreal Golf Club. Minutes later, Kim leaned into the microphone at a news conference and said he thought some of their American opponents had crossed the line.

“It got a little rough out there. I could hear some players swearing at us,” said Kim. “That part wasn’t really – I don’t think there was any good sportsmanship there. But it’s all part of the fun. I understand that.”

Their match — and Kim’s comments — added little to Sunday’s singles matches. Kim later clarified that he wasn’t talking about Cantlay or Schauffele (who insisted they had no idea what he was talking about) and regretted causing any kind of commotion, but the commotion was already brewing.

Then came a tweet from Kim’s teammate Ben An, who called out American player Wyndham Clark (I know, we’re introducing a lot of characters, stay with me here) for celebrating particularly aggressively from the side when the shot Cantlay entered.

“You always have that one guy in your group who doesn’t s- but talk- all day,” An wrote in a post he later deleted. Clark responded in a comment, calling out Annie for sitting on the bench all Saturday: “Then there’s the guy who didn’t even have a short . . .”

We heard Tom Kim’s cadi also the side of history. Veteran Paul Tesori joined SiriusXM’s PGA Tour Radio earlier this week to back up what his boss had said about the American team crossing the line, with just one criticism: He didn’t need to say it to the media.

“Obviously, I’ve witnessed three scenarios where members of the US team were very blunt with Tom and yes, cursed at him and got very personal,” Tesori said. “And at the end of the day, nobody wants that. These two guys who had done that, I don’t think it’s in their character at all. I know one of them apologized, which is great. The heat of the moment got to him.

“But I want to say something about it. When Tom mentioned this in Saturday’s press conference, I didn’t know he said it (he said so). And when he came in, he shared with me what he did, and that’s part of what a 52-year-old veteran can share with a 22-year-old.

“I said, ‘Tom, you have every right to feel the way you did.’ One of them, I saw a foot away from me. And the feelings I had inside were very New York Bethpagey. I wanted to react physically and I was upset by what had happened, but at the end of the day, I also know the character of the person with him. which happened, I don’t believe it is, and Tom handled it very well.

“At the end of the day, he cannot go to the media and express this,” concluded Tesori. “You have to go talk to your captains about it, go talk to your teammates about it and it’s a learning experience for Tom. And I think that’s what it comes down to.”

So who were the “two boys” that Tesori was referring to? Wyndham Clark threw some light on this matter when he joined The Loop podcast. this week — and offered his side of the story, too. (You can listen to the entire pod here.)

“Earlier that morning (Keegan Bradley) and I played Tom and Si Woo,” Clark told Loop host Chris Powers. “And we got to see them make tons of spikes against us and play unbelievable and then obviously we got to see all the celebrations that they were having. And then just some of the other gimmicks that maybe people weren’t seeing on TV, that obviously just leads to where you’re a little bit frustrated because some of them were extreme, in my opinion.

“And some of it felt a little bit contrived and so it almost didn’t feel authentic, especially for someone who’s usually pretty quiet, and so it almost felt like they were trying to do something. So we could feel it. And so (Keegan) and I lost, they beat us fair and square. They played unbelievable.”

After their 4-and-3 loss, the story picked up, Clark said, when he and Tony Finau began going after Kim/Kim against Cantlay/Schauffele that afternoon.

“So we started to see some of the best golf I’ve ever seen in a match, in every cup,” he said. “I mean, they were just birdie after birdie. Every other hole. It was pretty amazing and I mean, as far as the swearing that was going on or any of the trash talk, I feel like on our team, we were that only towards our boys.

“Guys were saying, you know, LFG (ed. note: I’ll let you translate) for our team and I think there was blasphemy here. Now, there have been times when we’ve been around their team or even their players where we’ve been yelling for our guys. But you also have to understand that we’re the away team, so we don’t have that much noise, we’re trying to create extra noise. So maybe we were heard more than if we were the home team because the crowd, you know, outside, you know, hears us.

“But really, when it comes to Si Woo’s deal, I mean, that Si Woo (chip-in) at 16 is one of the best shots I’ve ever seen up close and Si Woo is a dog. He’s literally one of my favorite guys on the PGA Tour and he’s got so much talent and you know, that shot was just incredible.

“And that week you can only put a highlight reel of his, like, top 10 of every shot. I liked it but you know that shot and then his PARTYAs I understand it, he loves Steph Curry. He also, if you really love Steph Curry, Steph even Steph tweeted this, you only do it when the game is over or when you know it’s over. So he did it right in front of Tony Finau and I, and we saw each other. We’re like, it’s a close ball game. I don’t see why you would do that.

“And then we go to 18, obviously, and we were both sitting there and we’re like, ‘Man, if we win this hole, we’re definitely going to give them — we’re going to put it right back in their face. ‘ And so sure, I mean, Patty Ice made it and, you know, I think people understood me because I was a little bit more, but I’m pretty sure Tony and I did it and I think it was huge.

“I mean, you know, what, if you’re going to talk trash and do things like that, then you should be able to handle what’s coming right at you. So, yeah, I mean, it was really fun.”

Clark concluded that, compared to his appearance on the American team a year ago, this was a much more pleasant side to be on.

“It was fun for me to root for those guys that afternoon because at the (2023) Ryder Cup, when I was grabbing the guys, we were smoking,” he said. “And it was good to get a win like that. It was really cool.”

So where does that leave us? There is a lot of overlap between the three stories; It is clear that the game was tense and the American team was vocal from the sideline and that each side felt that the other was doing little. Whether they crossed a line depends on what they said, to whom they said it, and where you think the line is. But all together it’s a reminder of the tension (and pettiness) of playing team matches. And the fact that we’re still talking about the Presidents Cup two weeks later is good news for an event that’s always hungry for attention.

Next year’s Ryder Cup can’t come soon enough.

Dylan Dethier

Dylan Dethier

Dylan Dethier is a senior writer for GOLF Magazine/GOLF.com. Resident of Williamstown, Mass. joined GOLF in 2017 after two years of struggling on the mini-tours. Dethier is a graduate of Williams College, where he majored in English, and he is the author of 18 in Americawhich details the year he spent as an 18-year-old living out of his car and golfing in every state.





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