South Korea’s Tom Kim accused his American opponents of poor sportsmanship and swearing at him as tensions flared once again at the Presidents Cup in Montreal.
The US won both of Saturday’s fourballs and foursomes sessions 3-1 to move 11-7 in front of the International team with Sunday’s 12 singles matches to come.
It was Tom Kim and Kim Si-woo’s match against Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele in the alternate shot foursomes that got heated.
The South Korean pair had already beaten Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark 4&3 in the fourballs before taking on Cantlay and Schauffele.
Two down at the seventh, Tom Kim was angry that a three-foot par putt to halve the hole was not conceded by the Americans.
After holing the putt, the 22-year-old laid down his putter next to the pin to illustrate just how close he was.
Using their anger as motivation, Tom Kim holed a 37-footer on the ninth before they levelled the match on the 10th.
Having fallen behind again by the 16th, Kim Si-woo produced a magnificent chip from the rough to level the match heading into the final two holes. He celebrated wildly by imitating Steph Curry’s ‘goodnight’ celebration on the green.
“My favorite NBA player is Steph Curry, so that’s what I did,” said Kim.
“It didn’t finish well, but yeah, I was excited,” he added after the Americans had the last, with Cantlay holing a birdie putt on the 18th to win the match.
The drama did not finish there though. Tom Kim, who was involved in a spat with world number one Scottie Scheffler on day one, accused his opponents – without specifying who – of swearing at him.
“As it got towards the end, it got a little feisty out there,” he said.
“I could hear some players cursing at us. I don’t think there was good sportsmanship there. But it’s all part of the fun. I understand it.
“The US team definitely motivated us to go out there.”
The accusation was denied by Kim’s opponents.
“I felt like Pat and I, we treated the Kims with the utmost respect. We’re trying to quieten the crowds down when they were hitting,” said Schauffele.
“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.”
Cantlay said he “didn’t even know what the goodnight gesture was” and was not affected by his opponents’ actions.
The Americans led the contest 5-0 after sweeping Thursday’s opening matches but the International team wiped out that deficit during Friday’s alternate shot foursomes.
Tom Kim and Kim Si-woo’s victory over American Ryder Cup captain Bradley and Clark was their only success in Saturday’s fourballs.
Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele were never behind as they beat Canadian pair Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes, while Scheffler holed two successive birdies as he and Collin Morikawa beat Adam Scott and Taylor Pendrith 2&1. Cantlay and Sam Burns saw off Hideki Matsuyama and Im Sung-jae.
International captain Mike Weir kept the same pairings for the afternoon foursomes, but they again registered only one point.
Sheffler and Russell Henley stretched the US lead with a 3&2 win over Matsuyama and Im but the other three matches all went to the final hole.
Pendrith and Scott won the last to defeat Brian Harman and Max Homa, but Morikawa and Burns edged out Conners and Hughes by a single hole.
The final match arrived at the last tee all square with the Kims needing to win the hole to cut the overall deficit to two points, but a birdie from Cantlay and Schauffele in near darkness claimed the point and stretched the advantage to four.
Play resumes at 17:00 BST with the US needing four points from Sunday’s 12 singles matches to retain the trophy.
Presidents Cup scores and format
Thursday fourballs (US lead 5-0)
Schauffele/Finau beat Day/An 1UP
Morika/Theegala beat Scott/Lee 1UP
Scheffler/Henley beat Im/Kim 3&2
Clark/Bradley beat Pendrith/Bexuidenhout 1UP
Cantlay/Burns beat Matsuyama/Conners 2&1
Friday foursomes (US 5-5 International)
Matsuyama/Im beat Cantlay/Schauffele 7&6
Scott/Pendrith beat Theegala/Morikawa 5&4
Bezuidenhout/Day beat Homa/Harman 1UP
Conners/ Hughes beat Clark/Finau 6&5
Kim/An beat Scheffler/Henley 1UP
Saturday (US lead 11-7)
Fourballs
Scheffler/Morikawa beat Scott/Pendrith 2&1
Finau/Xander Schauffele beat Conners/Hughes 3&2
Kim/Kim beat Bradley/Clark 4&3
Cantlay/Burns beat Matsuyama/Im 2&1
Foursomes
Pendrith/Scott beat Homa/Harman 2 up
Morikawa/Sam Burns beat Conners/Hughes 1 up
Cantlay/Schauffele beat Kim/Kim 1up
Scheffler/Henley beat Matsuyama/Im 3&2
Sunday
Twelve singles matches from 17:00 BST (US players listed first)
Schauffele v Day
Burns v Tom Kim
Scheffler v Matsuyama
Henley v Im
Cantlay v Pendrith
Bradley v Kim Si-woo
Finau v Conners
Clark v Lee
Theegala v An
Morikawa v Scott
Harman v Bezuidenhout
Homa v Hughes