After an opening round of two-under 69 at Carnoustie, Sung Kang faced down a far tougher opponent: the British press.
The 31-year-old South Korean hadn’t spoken publicly since being accused of “cheating” by playing partner Joel Dahmen after taking a questionable drop on the final day at Quicken Loans National. Kang’s drop came in the midst of a final-round 64 at the National that catapulted him into a qualifying spot for the British Open.[image:14182576]
“I’m really trying to have fun and enjoy, enjoy the golf course,” he told reporters, but he then acknowledged that he knew he would have to address the allegations. “I really want to say a lot of things about it, the truth about what happened, but I have no comment,” Kang said. Why the silence? “Because no matter what I say, some people are going to trust it, some people are not going to trust it. And then I’m going to be thinking about it more and more. So I’m just focusing on my golf game.” But despite declaring no comment, Kang went on make several.
“I followed the rule by the rules official, so I think I did the right thing,” he said. He also questioned Dahmen’s handling of the situation. “I did not want to say anything bad about Joel,” Kang said. “Because there can be difference of opinions. But the way he just said it on Twitter was not right. There can be different opinions. And also, it was made a decision by the rules official. So nothing was wrong.”
When asked if he would change the way he handled the situtation, Kang was certain of his response. “No. Why? I did the right thing.”
Kang and Dahmen crossed paths briefly at last week’s John Deere Classic, Kang said, but were busy preparing for their rounds and didn’t get a chance to discuss the matter further.
