Tom Kim apologized to U.S. captain Jim Furyk and Xander Schauffele on Sunday, one day after his public comments caused a bit of a stir at the 2024 Presidents Cup.
On Saturday, Kim told reporters that unidentified members of the U.S. team were “cursing at us” during their foursomes match in which he joined partner Si Woo Kim against Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay.
“I think the start of the round was definitely a little harder, but as it got towards the end, it got a little feisty out there,” Kim said Saturday. “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, a 22-year-old from South Korea, returned to the Royal Montreal Golf Club on Sunday and settled for a tie against Sam Burns. After that match, Kim sought out both Furyk and Schauffele before speaking again to reporters following the Americans’ 18 1/2-11 1/2 victory over the International squad.
“Yeah, it was just about my comments yesterday. I just told him like, hey, I didn’t mean it to go in such a negative way. 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 just I felt like it was right to share,” Kim said.
“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 apologize if it came out wrongly. It was just this and this happened, but if it affected you guys so negatively, I really do apologize. I didn’t mean to do it in that way.'”
–Field Level Media