Tom Kim sparked an International Team comeback Friday in the Presidents Cup from abroad.
Vaughn Ridley | Getty Images
MONTREAL – The orchestra in the first box of the President’s Cup was ready to make sweet music, but it just needed a conductor.
Thankfully, the maestro arrived early, wearing an embellished black sweatshirt and a bucket hat over his eyes.
“INT!” Tom Kim shoutedpointing at the fans and scurrying around like a pill bug.
“INT!!!” they shouted again, louder with each round of calls.
It would be disingenuous to say that Kim single-handedly changed the trajectory of the Presidents Cup on Friday afternoon. After all, of the 12 players on the international team, Kim was one of four not to hit the golf ball in Friday’s 5-0 reverse, tying the score at 5. But to say that Kim didn’t compete on Friday would also be false.
The nature of team golf game events is that some players are forced to sit out. As such, it’s not uncommon for non-gamers to take in the action up close. But she IS unusual to take action in the way Kim did on Friday, the same day the internationals breathed new life into the Presidents’ Cup.
Kim, off the bench, was at the center of a wild home run for INTs on Friday. And it started on the first tee.
Inside a shocking Presidents Cup comeback: The second-guessing scene from the 5-0 sweep
After the Internationals fell into an early 5-0 hole on Thursday, team captain Mike Weir Kim sat down for Friday’s alternate-hitting games, a decision that almost immediately appeared to be a mistake. Kim had been the lifeblood of a lifeless international side in Thursday’s 5-0 rout, scoring several highlights. against world number 1 Scottie Scheffler before Scheffler returned to golf Terminator and won the match. He was one of the few players who seemed to elicit any kind of excitement from the home crowd and the internationals needed every cheer they could get.
Then the sun came on Friday morning and the fans came with it. They rolled into the first tee box at Royal Montreal, which was rocking at a decidedly higher decibel than Thursday (thanks at least in part to a revamped DJ roster). And once they arrived, they were greeted by the green face (and voice) of International Side, Tom Kim.
“When I knew I was going to sit out, I said to myself, what can I do to get my teammates out there tomorrow and feel the energy? Because our crowd wasn’t going,” said Kim. “I had one goal today, and that was to get there before everyone got to the first team and get the crowd going for my boys.”
Kim brought the energy, waving and shouting at the international faithful, who responded with waves and shouts of their own. Before long, the last of the day’s five quarters had left the lame area and the change was evident.
“I hit the first shot yesterday in our group, and the first tee shot today,” said Tony Finau, who was sent to 6 and 5 by the Canadian pair of Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes. “It was a night and day difference, I think just the buzz and the energy.”
Kim carried the energy onto the field as the yellow flags continued to pile up on the scoreboard, hitting the crowd with every passing birdie putt. He was there on the 12th, when Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im capped off an emphatic 7-and-6 dismantling of Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffeleand there on the 13th, too, as Conners and Hughes poured in a final birdie to send the crowd into the ball.
“LET’S GO!” Kim yelled several times, to no one in particular.
“I just wish they could bring it into the weekend as well because we’re going to need it,” Kim said, a touch wry, at Friday’s post-round presser. The fact that he didn’t compete in the session and yet was invited to attend the press conference, which is usually reserved only for executives and key performers, spoke volumes.
But then again, such were his screams, which could be heard even during the chaos of Saturday afternoon, leaving him breathless more than once.
“I think I’m starting to lose my voice,” he said Friday night with a smile.
If Kim’s voice is completely gone by Saturday morning, we know the moment that delivered the final blow. It came just before sundown on Friday as Si Woo Kim looked at a putt in the fifth and final game of the day to pick off Scheffler and Henley. As his shot hit the bottom of the hole, Si Woo reached out and motioned to the international side, who rushed towards him.
It was no surprise to see that Kim was the first player to achieve it. And even less of a surprise to see what happened next, as the backlash engulfed the thousands gathered near the 18th, who suddenly believed – as Kim did that morning – that the internationals really were in it.
“INT!” Kim shouted, waving her hands like a virtuoso.
“INT!!!” the crowd roared back.
Right on the mark.
