“It was just outside the ropes, and I felt like that was a little misunderstanding on my part.”
One of the first things Tom Kim did after tying Sam Burns in his singles match Sunday at the 2024 Presidents Cup was seek out Xander Schauffele and U.S. captain Jim Furyk.
“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. 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,” was Kim’s response to a question Saturday after the matches ended.
Come Sunday, Kim and Burns went toe-to-toe, with Kim a little less demonstrative than he had been known to be in his two Presidents Cup appearances. It came down to the 18th, and Kim missed a winning birdie putt to halve the match.
Shortly after handshakes, Kim darted off the green to Fuyrk and Schauffele. He was asked about it Sunday night.
“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.’
“This event is all about doing things you would never do and creating energy and doing all these things. If I — I do certain things on the greens when I make putts, and I expect them to do the same thing. It’s all part of the game. It was just about that.”
The next question was about whether he wanted to approach a player and captain, and insisted he wanted to, trying to clear the air.
“I felt like it was right for me to go up and share the way — you know, what the meaning was coming from that comment.”
Schauffele was asked about the conversation Sunday night, too, and he declined to comment, saying if Kim wanted to talk more about the conversation, then he could.
Furyk is nothing if not a fighter and he formed a plan.
MONTREAL – U.S. Captain Jim Furyk stood at the 18th green late on Friday afternoon when Si Woo Kim drained a 15-foot putt to complete a clean sweep of the five foursomes matches to tie the score at 5-5 in the 2024 Presidents Cup.
“That was a massive putt by Si Woo Kim to make it 0 and 5,” Furyk recalled on Sunday.
At the time, Furyk wore a smirk on his face that said, Really? This cannot be happening again.
After all, as the U.S. Ryder Cup captain in 2018 in Paris, Furyk’s team jumped to a 3-1 lead in the first session only to be swept in the second session. Then the European rout was on. Déjà vu all over again?
Furyk is nothing if not a fighter and he formed a plan. He had been contemplating for as many as four holes, he said, how he was going to address the team and what messaging to deliver.
“It’s easy to buy in when things are rolling; it’s hard to buy in when things aren’t going well,” he explained.
In that moment, Furyk conceived a plan.
“I told the (assistant) captains on the golf course, I think what I’m going to do tonight is instead of standing up and giving a rah-rah speech, let’s lock them all in a room and let’s talk it out,” he said. “Let’s hear what they have to say, what they felt and saw on the golf course.”
They met as a team and Furyk started but he didn’t say much. “I didn’t need to,” he said.
Tony Finau spoke first and Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa – guys Furyk said “aren’t the loudest” – were among those to chime in. One by one, members of Team USA stepped up and shared what they have used in their career to pick themselves up off the mat in their own low-lights.
“In moments like that, if you can be vulnerable and you can share, it really pulls people together,” Furyk said. “Friday night could’ve been a little bit of a panic and it was a very calm night, a very right the ship and let’s get out there.”
The alarm sounded at 3:30 a.m. the next morning, and Furyk and the team climbed on to the team bus to the course at 4:15 a.m. Even before balls were in the air, Furyk knew his team was in a good place.
“The look on their faces coming off the bus on Saturday morning, I was jacked up,” he said.
The U.S. claim three of four points in both the morning and afternoon session to stake the team to an 11-7 lead and seized back all the momentum.
“To see how we all responded spoke to the character of the team,” Finau said. “Today the Cup was won but we really won it yesterday. That’s what separated us, gave us a big cushion and all the pressure was on them to try to beat us.”
It would have been a stain on a Hall of Fame-worthy resume to be a two-time loser as U.S. captain, to be the one at the helm when the mighty U.S. finally went down to defeat to the Internationals. But as the victorious captain of the 2024 Presidents Cup, Furyk sounded a bit like Coach Norman Dale in the movie Hoosiers when he said, “This group is special, they really are.”
During the Solheim Cup, Alison Lee and Megan Khang’s caddies Jack Fulghum and Taylor “Shota” Takada made a bet that if one of their players holed out, they would take their shirts off. Two holes later, it happened.
Well, Max Homa was watching from home, and he posted on social media about the interaction. That’s when Kevin Kisner chimed in, saying if Homa did it at the 2024 Presidents Cup, he would do the same.
Well, Homa holed out. He did so on the first hole Sunday of his singles match against Mackenzie Hughes. And while it didn’t happen immediately, Kisner eventually did follow through on his end of the bet once the celebration began.
MONTREAL — A month ago, Keegan Bradley was sweating out whether he’d qualify for the BMW Championship while planning to serve as an assistant captain to U.S. Presidents Cup captain Jim Furyk at Royal Montreal Golf Club.
Then he not only made it as the last man in the BMW field, he won the tournament and forced Furyk to use one of his captain’s picks on the 38-year-old veteran who last competed in international team competition a decade ago. On Thursday, Bradley sank six putts of more than 10 feet and teamed with Wyndham Clark during a four-ball session at Royal Montreal Golf Club for a 1-up win.
“It was 10 years of pent up energy, it looks like, of not playing these,” said the fiery Bradley, who was jubilant when his winning putt dropped in. “I just had such a blast out there today.”
But on Sunday morning, he experienced his share of butterflies before his singles match against Si Woo Kim, the hottest player on the International Team.
“I felt like I could throw up,” Bradley said. “I can’t remember ever feeling like that. I was, like, really uncomfortable,” adding, “this morning I woke up and just, like, felt I had electricity going through my body.”
Bradley gave the U.S. side just the jolt it needed. It was only fitting that he should have the honor of securing the clinching point, as the U.S. claimed the 2024 Presidents Cup for a 10th straight time in the biennial competition, winning 18½-11½ over its opponents consisting of a 12-man team from the rest of the world (excluding Europe).
“It’s a fairy tale. It’s a movie almost. I just can’t believe it,” said Bradley, who was named the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup captain in July. “You just have to work as hard as you can, and good things happen.”
As soon as he won his match, 1 up, over Kim, he looked around for someone to hug, finally finding teammate Russell Henley and then locating his wife for a smooch.
“I was saying all week I didn’t know if I’d ever get to do this again. To just play in this tournament and then to win the point, my goodness, the last time I played, I was the point to lose the Ryder Cup,” Bradley said. “If this is my last round as a player, maybe it is, I’m happy with that.”
He added: “This is up there with as great a moment in my career as I’ve ever felt.”
The U.S. raced to an early lead, sweeping five four-ball matches Thursday, but the Internationals returned the favor with a sweep of Friday’s foursomes to show they wouldn’t go lightly this time. But on Saturday’s double session the U.S. won three out four points available in each session to grab an 11-7 lead. No team has ever trailed by more than two points heading into the singles session and come from behind.
Xander Schauffele of team USA celebrates the win during the final round of the 2024 Presidents Cup. (Eric Bolte-Imagn Images)
Furyk, who was the losing U.S. Ryder Cup captain in 2018, front-loaded his lineup and his studs delivered, winning 4½ points in the first six matches. On Sunday, the Americans played the first hole in seven birdies and an eagle and added seven birdies at the second for a collective 16 under. “That’s coming out hot,” Furyk said.
Xander Schauffele, the World No. 2, went out first and played 15 holes in 7 under to rout Jason Day, 4 and 3.
“My goal was just to set the tone, get red up on that board as early as possible, and I was able to do that,” Schauffele said.
Sam Burns and Tom Kim traded shots all day, but their match ended tie, the first of the week.
The one early loss was in the third match where Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama made birdies at 14 and 15 and a stellar approach shot on the par-3 17th to edge world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, 1 up.
“The last putt right there I was super nervous,” Matsuyama said. “My hands were shaking a lot.”
Scheffler moved to 1-3 in singles during team competitions and 0-2 in the Presidents Cup.
The next three matches, however, all went to the Americans. Russell Henley, perhaps the breakout star for the red, white and blue, topped Sungjae Im 3 and 2.
“I’m just thankful to be on the team but also to get some points for the team,” Henley said. “It just means the world to me.”
Corey Conners, one of three Canadians on the International Team, was one of the brights spots in singles. He rallied from a 2-down deficit through four holes and coasted to a 5-and-3 win over Tony Finau.
“One of the coolest moments of my career on 13, with everybody, a thousand people around the green singing ‘Oh, Canada’ and to hole a putt like that was really memorable and special.
“The crowds have been behind us, and we really felt their energy,” he said.
Patrick Cantlay, who drained a 16-foot birdie at 18 to win Saturday’s last foursomes match and stake the U.S. to an 11-7 lead heading into singles, earned another point for the U.S. with birdies on Nos. 14 and 15 to pull away from Canadian Taylor Pendrith, 3 and 1.
Team USA players and caddies celebrate the win during the final round of the 2024 Presidents Cup. (Eric Bolte-Imagn Images)
“It’s great to have teammates and have the best players in the world on my team,” Cantlay said. “This team is so close, and we’ve pulled for each other all week.”
Collin Morikawa (2 and 1 over Adam Scott) and Max Homa (2 and 1 over Mackenzie Hughes) both added full points for the U.S. Wyndham Clark and Australia’s Min Woo Lee tied as did American Sahith Theegala and South Korea’s Ben An. South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout claimed one final point for his side with a 2-and-1 victory over Brian Harman.
While the International side battled to the end, the result was the same, but Tom Kim expressed belief that the International side just needs a few things to go its way next time.
“Winning doesn’t last forever,” Kim said. “There’s going to be one day where it’s just going to be our day. We’ll keep trying. There’s going to be one time when we’re going to hold the Cup, and it’s going to be sometime soon.”
After an amazing five-match sweep by the International squad Friday came on the heels a five-match sweep by the U.S. team Thursday, which knotted things up at 5-5 heading to the weekend.
Team USA forged ahead after the two Saturday sessions to lead the 2024 Presidents Cup 11-7 with one day to go.
The first team to reach 15 ½ points wins the cup. A 15-15 tie means the Presidents Cup is tied, something that happened in 2003. Overall, the U.S. leads the event 12-1-1.
The final day is Sunday singles, with all 12 players from each side competing, with each match worth one point.
The World No. 1 hit his approach shot into a greenside bunker at the first hole at Royal Montreal Golf Club in his 2024 Presidents Cup singles match against the International Team’s Hideki Matsuyama. No. Big. Deal. Scheffler lofted his bunker shot high in the air and right into the cup on the fly for a birdie and a quick and improbable 1-up lead.
Scheffler clenched his right fist in a rather subdued celebration for such an incredible shot. Highlight reel stuff #ESPNplayoftheday Top-10 lock and huge momentum surge for Scheffler too.
The U.S. entered Sunday’s 12 single matches with an 11-7 lead. It is seeking its 10th straight win in the biennial competition.
“It got a little feisty out there. I could hear some players cursing at us”
MONTREAL – Tom Kim may only have a record of 1-2 in this edition of the Presidents Cup but he has been a thorn in the side of the U.S., an excitable player pumping his fists, dancing around the green after making an assortment of lengthy putts and egging the crowd to make more noise.
All of that is fair play in team competition but Kim accused the American side of crossing the line into unsportsmanlike behavior.
“It got a little feisty out there. I could hear some players cursing at us,” Kim said during a post-match press conference after he and partner lost a thriller to Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele. “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. So the U.S. Team definitely motivated us to go out there.”
Later in the press conference, without naming names, Kim reiterated that he was disappointed with some of the comments directed at him and partner Si Woo Kim.
“You see me out there throwing fist pumps and jumping on the green. It’s all part of it, I get it. I just don’t think there’s a need to look at someone and curse at them. I just don’t think there’s a need for it,” he said. “I understand it. I don’t get hurt about it. My feelings don’t hurt at all. I hope there’s no negative comments. That’s not what I’m trying to do here.”
When Cantlay and Schauffele met the media, they were asked for their version of what transpired and both expressed surprise at Kim’s accusation.
“I felt like Pat and I, we treated the Kims with the utmost respect,” Schauffele said. “We’re trying to quiet the crowds down when they were hitting. We’re trying to quiet the crowd – go back on film, quiet the crowds down when we were hitting. It was fair take, give and go.
“I have no clue if anyone was doing any of that. I don’t believe any of our guys would do something like that. So I’m not sure what he was hearing.”
Kim’s opponent in a Sunday singles match? American Sam Burns, who won’t back down from any negative comments he hears – even from the fans.
“If they’re going to come at me, why shouldn’t I go at them? That seems fair to me. If people are going to shout out behind ropes or whatever and say whatever they want, just because I’m inside of them doesn’t mean I can’t yell back at them,” Burns said. “I think there’s appropriate times for it. I think you’ve got to let them know that you’re not scared of what they say and you’re not afraid of a couple laughs with their buddies. They think they tell a good joke. So, yeah, I like it.”
“I can tell you one thing, I’m never going to play him in the dark or at night.”
MONTREAL – Patrick Cantlay is a menace late on Saturday afternoon in big international team competition.
One year after he gave the U.S. a glimmer of hope at the Ryder Cup in Rome with a clutch putt in the gloaming to beat Rory McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick, Cantlay sank a 15-foot birdie putt at 18 at Royal Montreal to win an exhilarating match that gave the U.S. an 11-7 leading and may have broken the International Team’s spirit at the 2024 Presidents Cup. Teammate Sam Burns called him an assassin and Cantlay’s partner, Xander Schauffele echoed that sentiment.
“I think it’s pretty fitting, it being all dark and all,” he said. “I could barely see him out there. Reading the putt with him was pretty entertaining, using some light from the board. I can tell you one thing, I’m never going to play him in the dark or at night. I’ll just wait for the morning.”
Cantlay’s birdie sent the Americans circling the green into a frenzy and secured a 1-up win over South Korea’s Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim in a match that had everything: incredible putts, hole outs, theatrics bordering on unsportsmanlike behavior, pettiness and it all coming down to a putt off at 18. It was the type of match that no one deserved to lose but Patty Ice proved he has a little more ice in his veins.
“Man, did it feel good when P.C. made that putt there in the dark,” Schauffele said.
This was a rematch of Saturday’s foursomes at the 2022 Presidents Cup in which the South Korean pair stole a full point and knocked off the seemingly invincible American team. Kim squared already had knocked off Americans Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark in morning four-ball when they were the top two putters of the session.
And they weren’t done making putts. In the afternoon, the Kims fell 2 down through six holes. It was at six where Cantlay refused to give a short putt to Kim, and when the hole was over he pantomimed measuring the length of his putt that he was forced to make. Ian Kim or should we say Tom Poulter – he certainly has a way of getting under the skin of his U.S. opponents much like Ian Poulter once did at the Ryder Cup – answered with a 37-foot birdie putt at the ninth and danced around the green with an array of fist pumps. His theatrics pumped up the crowd and he celebrated in similar fashion one hole later when Si Woo Kim sank a 15-foot birdie putt to even the match.
The back and forth affair also included ridiculous par saves at 11 with Si Woo Kim drilling a 19-footer and Cantlay answering from 16 feet. Every time the U.S. pulled ahead as it did with a win at 13, the Internationals bounced back with a win as it did at 14. Schauffele made his own bomb from 33 feet at 15 and the Americans celebrated with a restrained knuckles tap and Schauffele giving Cantlay a slap on the butt.
Kim’s approach at 16 missed right and plugged in the grass above the greenside bunker. Schauffele was the one who eventually found it during a mad search by players and caddies and the Internationals were granted a free drop.
“He got a great lie,” John Wood reported on NBC.
Still, Si Woo Kim was shortsided and anything inside 5 feet would be outstanding. Kim opened his sand wedge wide and lofted his ball high in the air. It landed softly and turned into the hole. As Sahith Theegala had dubbed it earlier in the week, a Mongolian Reversal of the highest order as instead of a good chance of falling 2 down with 2 to go, the match suddenly was tied once more.
“Hurt more than I thought it would,” Schauffele said. “Pat and I were sitting back there, we both have match play minds, and we both said Si Woo’s going to get this up-and-down, and then he holed it. Pat looked at me and said, ‘I guess 4 is not enough, we’re going to make some birdies.’ That’s exactly what P.C. did coming in.”
Did he ever.
“That was big,” U.S. Captain Jim Furyk said. “If you had to hand select someone to hit a big putt on your team, I think Pat would come to a lot of people’s minds.”
Cantlay’s 17-footer, aimed “a cup outside with some speed,” made sure the U.S. wouldn’t lose the final match. Si Woo Kim still had a chance to tie the hole but he finally flinched and missed a big putt from an inch closer than Cantlay.
This was the ninth career Presidents Cup match for Cantlay and Schuaffele together, the most in event history. They’ll likely play many more in the years to come but it will be hard to top this one when Patty Ice was Patty Clutch.
MONTREAL — When the fog finally lifted Saturday morning at Royal Montreal Golf Club, so did the metaphorical lid on the hole for the U.S. side.
U.S. Captain Jim Furyk sent out two of his top horses in the first match and Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa delivered a full point, winning 2 and 1 over Adam Scott and Taylor Pendrith.
“I think captain instilled some confidence in me and Collin to go out and get a point and it wasn’t pretty today but we did what we needed to do to get the point, and that’s what’s most important,” Scheffler said.
The U.S. won three of the four four-ball matches to grab an 8-6 lead. The U.S. needs seven more points to retain the Cup.
Scheffler took a little longer to heat up on a cool morning during which play was suspended for an hour and 37 minutes due to fog. The world No. 1 failed to make a single birdie in the first 15 holes. But he stuck his approach at 16 inside 10 feet and drained the putt to put the U.S. 1 up, and canned a putt from the front fringe to seal the 2-and-1 victory.
“I was getting a little bit impatient out there and I’m standing there on 15 green thinking to myself, ‘What am I doing?'” Scheffler said. “I was able to make a couple birdies when my partner needed me because he was a bit alone out there for a while today, so I was proud to step up when I needed to.”
In the second match, Americans Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele downed the Canadian team of Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes, 3 and 2. The U.S. made birdie at No. 9 to take a 2-up lead at the turn. The Canadians cut the deficit in half with a birdie at 11, but Conners missed a short putt at 12 to lose the hole and the momentum. Schauffele, the winner of two majors this year, said his team was hungry to get rid of the taste of being swept on Friday.
“You’ve heard me before at individual events talking about you’ve got to have some dog in you. When I look around my team room, I see a lot of dogs. We’ve proved that so far,” he said.
Si Woo Kim (R) and Tom Kim of South Korea and the International Team celebrate on the 12th green during Saturday Morning Four-Ball on day three of the 2024 Presidents Cup at The Royal Montreal Golf Club on September 28, 2024 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
The one bright spot for the Internationals in the morning was the South Korean duo of Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim, who pounded Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark, 4 and 3. The Internationals won the first two holes and never looked back. Tom Kim was the emotional leader, fist pumping and getting the crowd charged up. When he made his fifth birdie of the day at No. 14, Kim exploded in celebration and chest-bumped with Si Woo Kim.
“Our chemistry is really good, and we just bonded together,” Tom Kim said of their team effort to get the lone point for the International Team.
In the last match, Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns beat Sungjae Im and Hideki Matsuyama, 2 and 1. Burns made birdies at Nos. 6 and 8 to push the U.S. ahead and then Cantlay came to life on the back, pitching in for eagle to win the 12th hole and making three straight birdies beginning at No. 14 to make sure their would be no comeback by the Internationals.
It was an impressive bounce-back performance by the heavily-favored U.S. side that got blanked 5-0 on Friday in foursomes.
“Yesterday was yesterday,” Morikawa said. “It’s not like we’ve never played bad golf and it’s not like we’ve never lost.”
Four more points are on the table this afternoon during foursomes. The first match of the afternoon begins at 2:20 p.m. ET. International Team Captain Mike Weir sent out the same four teams in the afternoon, sitting Min Woo Lee, Jason Day, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Ben A while the U.S. is sitting Keegan Bradley, Wyndham Clark, Tony Finau and Sahith Theegala, who sat both sessions on Saturday.
The 2024 Presidents Cup is heating up north of the border as Team USA took an 8-6 lead into Saturday afternoon’s foursomes session. Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim, who continue to be spark plugs for the Internationals, earned the lone point for the black and gold in the morning session.
Team Kim took on Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay in the afternoon, and Cantlay buried a birdie putt on 18 to win the match, 1 up, and give Team USA a four-point lead heading into Sunday singles.
Here’s a complete look at the afternoon foursomes scores.
