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

We heard Tom Kim’s side of the story.

He came off the course hot on Saturday night at the Presidents Cup. He and partner Si Woo Kim had just lost a pivotal, electric foursomes 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 mic at a press conference and said he thought some of their American opponents had crossed the line.

“It got a little feisty out there. I could hear some players cursing at us,” Kim said. “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.”

Their match — and Kim’s comments — added some juice 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 that it caused any sort of stir, but the stir was already on.

Then came a tweet from Kim’s teammate Ben An, who called out U.S. player Wyndham Clark (I know, we’re introducing a lot of characters, stick with me here) for celebrating particularly aggressively from the sidelines when Cantlay’s putt went in.

“You always have a guy in your group who doesn’t do s— but talk s— all day,” An wrote in a tweet he later deleted. Clark fired back in a comment, calling out An for being benched all Saturday: “Then there’s the guy who didn’t even have a tee time…”

We heard Tom Kim’s caddie’s side of the story, too. Veteran looper Paul Tesori joined SiriusXM’s PGA Tour Radio earlier this week to back up what his boss had said about the U.S. team crossing the line, just with one critique: He didn’t need to say so in the media.

“Obviously, I witnessed three scenarios where members of the U.S. team emphatically got personal with Tom and yes, cursed at him and got very personal,” Tesori said. “And at the end of the day, no one wants that. These two guys that had done it, I don’t think that’s in their character at all. I know one of them apologized, which is a great thing. The heat of the moment got to him.

“But I do want to say something about that. When Tom mentioned that in the Saturday press conference, I didn’t know he had [said so]. And when he came in, he shared with me what he did, and this is 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 witnessed 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 this happened with I don’t believe is that way, and Tom handled it really well.

“At the end of the day, he can’t go to the media and pronounce that,” Tesori concluded. “You got 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 those “two guys” Tesori was referring to? Wyndham Clark shed some light on the matter when he joined “The Loop” podcast this week — and offered his side of the story, too. (You can listen to the whole pod here.)

“Earlier that morning [Keegan Bradley] and I played Tom and Si Woo,” Clark told Loop host Chris Powers. “And we witnessed them making tons of putts on us and playing unbelievable and then obviously witnessed all of the celebrations that they were doing. And then just some of the other antics that maybe people weren’t seeing on TV, that obviously just kind of gets you to where you’re a little frustrated because some of it was extreme, in my opinion.

“And some of it seemed a little fabricated and so it almost didn’t seem authentic, especially for someone that’s usually pretty quiet, and so it almost seemed like they were trying to do something. So we could feel that. And so [Keegan] and I lost, they beat us fair and square. They played unbelievable.”

After their 4-and-3 defeat, the story picked up, Clark said, when he and Tony Finau started following Kim/Kim vs. Cantlay/Schauffele that afternoon.

“So we started seeing some of the best golf I’ve ever seen in a match, at any cup,” he said. “I mean, they were just birdie after birdie. Every other hole. It was quite amazing and I mean, as far as the cussing that was going on or any of the trash-talking, I feel like on our team, we were doing it only towards our guys. 

“Guys were saying, y’know, LFG [ed. note: I’ll let you translate] for our team and I think that’s where the cussing was. Now, there were times when we were close to their team or even their players where we were screaming for our guys. But you also gotta realize we’re the away team, so we don’t have as 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, out, you know, does hear us. 

“But really when it comes down to Si Woo’s deal, I mean, Si Woo’s [chip-in] on 16 is one of the best shots I’ve ever witnessed up close and Si Woo is a dog. He is literally one of my favorite guys on the PGA Tour and has so much talent and you know, that shot was just unbelievable. 

 “And that week you could just put a highlight reel of his, like, top 10 of every shot. I felt like, but you know that shot and then his celebration, like I get, he loves Steph Curry. He also, if he really does love Steph Curry, Steph even Steph tweeted this, you only do that when the game’s over or when you know it’s done. So he did that right in front of Tony Finau and I, and we looked at each other. We’re like, it’s a tight ball game. I don’t understand why you would do that.

 “And then we go to 18, obviously, and we both were sitting there and we’re like, ‘Man, if we win this hole, we’re for sure giving them — we’re putting it right back in their face.’ And so sure enough, I mean, Patty Ice made, made it and, you know, I think people got me because I kind of was a little more, but I’m pretty sure Tony and I both did it and I think it was great. 

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

Clark concluded that, compared to his U.S. team appearance a year earlier, this was a much more enjoyable side to be on.

“It was fun for me to root for those guys that afternoon because in the [2023] Ryder Cup, when I was rooting for guys, we were getting smoked,” he said. “And so it was nice to get a win like that. It was really cool.”

So where does this leave us? There’s plenty of overlap between the three stories; it’s clear the match was tense and the U.S. team was vocal from the sidelines and that each side thinks the other was doing a little much. Whether they crossed a line depends on what they said, in whose direction they said it and where you think the line is. But all together it’s a reminder of the tension (and pettiness) of team match play. 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.