Remember when things got a little chippy at the Presidents Cup between Tom Kim and Scottie Scheffler during their Thursday Four-Ball match? Then assistant captains Kevin Kisner and Camilo Villegas had a man spat over Team Kim walking off the green before Scheffler had attempted his birdie putt at the eighth green. It feels like a long time ago already but one of the people with an inside-the-ropes view to the Tom Kim Show, caddie Paul Tesori, shed some light on what really went down.
Tesori, the longtime caddie for Webb Simpson, jumped on Kim’s bag last year when Joe Skovron left to caddie for Ludvig Aberg. Tesori, who is an American, had famously caddied for International Team member Vijay Singh at the 2000 Presidents Cup and wore a hat that said, “Tiger Who?” and watched Woods use it as fuel in a 2-and-1 win. Nearly a quarter of a century later, Tesori was the wise sage passing along words of wisdom to a 22-year-old star in the making who is trying to grow up in the media spotlight.
Kim, a South Korean-born three-time Tour winner making his second appearance in the biennial competition between the U.S. and International Team, had no trouble dancing around the greens of Royal Montreal and engaging in a flurry of fist pumps and get-under-the-skin-level celebrations during his matches. He was a sparkplug for an International Team that needed some life after falling behind 5-0 on Thursday. But by Saturday, Kim’s act had worn thin, at least with a few members of the U.S. team.
“I witnessed three (incidents) where members of the U.S. team emphatically got personal with Tom, and, yes, you know, cursed at him and got very personal,” Tesori told PGA Tour SiriusXM Radio on Sunday. He said that those individuals “acted in a way that I’d be embarrassed to act,” but added, “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.”
Tesori noted that Kim handled the situation well in real-time, but if those U.S. team members crossed a line with their behavior so did Kim in breaking an unwritten rule when he publicly called them out during a post-round press conference. Kim did stop short of naming names but as one writer pointed out, “Kim complaining about bush-league behavior is like the cast member of the Real Housewives calling someone dramatic.”
When Kim informed Tesori that he had gone public with his accusations, the 52-year-old Tesori used it as a teachable moment with his boss.
Caddie Paul Tesori commented on the controversy surrounding the matches between Tom Kim and the US Team at the @PresidentsCup during On Course with @Fdarbs and Brian Crowell.
Take a Listen. pic.twitter.com/kmKY0Cf2sw
— SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio (@SiriusXMPGATOUR) October 6, 2024
“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,” Tesori recounted. “Now, there’s no reason for him to go in the media. And we know in the world we live in now, even if there was video proof of what happened, half the world’s gonna think he’s being a baby, and the other half is gonna think he’s viable.
“Tom has to have thick skin, and at the end of the day, he can’t go to the media and pronounce that. 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.”
We’ll have to wait another two years for the next installment of the Presidents Cup for more of Kim’s antics, but safe to say both sides will handle the situation better next time Kim celebrates as only he can.