Tom Kim raised the international team for the return of the President’s Cup on Friday from the sidelines.
Vaughn Ridley Getty Images
MONTREAL – The orchestra on the first tee box at the Presidents Cup was ready to make great music, but it needed a conductor.
Thankfully, the maestro arrived early, wearing a dark black shirt and a bucket hat over his eyes.
“INT!” Tom Kim screamed, pointing at the fans and walking around like a pill bug.
“INT!!!” they shouted back, with great force with every song.
It would be an understatement to say that Kim single-handedly changed the course of the President’s Cup on Friday afternoon. After all, of the 12 players on the International team, Kim is one of four who did not make a golf swing in Friday’s amazing reverse 5-0 game to even the score at 5. But to say that Kim did not score a goal. compete with each other and on Friday it will not be true.
The nature of golf club play events is that some players are forced to sit out. Therefore, it is rare for non-gamers to step up. But it is something unusual to take action the way Kim did on Friday, the same day the Internationals breathed new life into the Presidents Cup.
Kim, who came off the bench, was at the center of the home INTs situation on Friday. And it started on the first tee.
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After the Internationals fell into a 5-0 hole on Thursday, team captain Mike Weir sat Kim out for the rest of Friday’s games, a decision that quickly proved to be a mistake. Kim was part of the international team’s lifeless 5-0 thump on Thursday, scoring a few times against the World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler before Scheffler turned to golf. Terminator and won the match. He was one of the few players who seemed to generate any kind of excitement in the home team, and the international players needed all the excitement they could get.
Until the sun came up on Friday morning, the fans came with it. They rolled into the first box at the Royal Montreal, which was rocking a noticeably higher decibel than Thursday (at least in part due to a modified DJ playlist). And as soon as they arrived, they were greeted by the green face (and voice) of the International Side, Tom Kim.
“When I knew I was going to sit out, I said to myself, What can I do so my teammates can come out tomorrow to feel the power? Because our crowd was not going,” said Kim. “I had one goal today, and that was to get there before everyone else got to the first game and get the crowd going for my guys.”
Kim brought the energy, waving and shouting at the international faithful, who responded with their own waves and shouts. Before long, the final foursome of the day was off the teeing ground, and the difference was evident.
“I hit the first shot yesterday for our team, and I hit the first shot today,” said Tony Finau, who was sent 6-5 by Canadian pair Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes. “It was a night and day difference, I think the sound and the power.”
Kim oozed energy from the course as the yellow flags kept piling up on the board, rallying the crowd with each passing birdie putt. He was there in the 12th, when Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im shut down a strong 7-and-6 shutout of Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, and there in the 13th, too, as Conners and Hughes poured one last bird to send a ballistic crowd.
“Let’s go!” Kim screamed several times, to no one.
“I wish they could bring it over the weekend because we’re going to need it,” Kim said, touchingly, at Friday’s press conference. The fact that he did not attend the session and was invited to participate in the press conference, which is reserved for leaders and top players only, spoke volumes.
But again, so did his cries, which could be heard even in the chaos of a Saturday afternoon, leaving him breathless more than once.
“I think I’m starting to lose my voice,” he said Friday evening with a grin.
If KIm’s voice is gone come Saturday morning, we know the moment that delivered the final blow. It came just before sunset on Friday, as Si Woo Kim holed a par putt in the fifth and final game of the day to pick off Scheffler and Henley. As his putt hit the bottom of the hole, Si Woo extended his hand and waved to the international side, who rushed towards him.
It’s no surprise to see Kim as the first player to reach out to him. And what’s even more surprising is what happened afterwards, as pandemonium engulfed the thousands gathered around the 18th, who simply believed – as Kim did that morning – that it really was be in it.
“INT!” Kim shouted, waving her hands like a genius.
“INT!!!” the crowd shouted back.
Right on cue.
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