Wyndham Clark became the latest American player to take on the pantomime villain role in a team event, with the 2023 US Open champion coming in for criticism during the Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal last month.
Whether it is Patrick Reed, Patrick Cantlay or Wyndham Clark, the US team has often provided plenty of players in recent years who have had to deal with the home fans getting on their backs for one reason or another.
At the Presidents Cup in Canada, it was Clark who upset plenty of golf fans. A video showed the 30-year-old mocking Si-woo Kim and Tom Kim after they were beaten by Cantlay and Xander Schauffele on Saturday evening.
Tom Kim would claim shortly afterwards that there were other members of the American team who had sworn at him during the match. And while no names were named, Clark confirmed that he had been following the match from the 11th hole alongside Tony Finau and Keegan Bradley.
Wyndham Clark shocked by what Tom Kim said during the Presidents Cup
Kim would apologise to Jim Furyk and Schauffele the following day. And speaking on the No Laying Up Podcast, Clark has suggested that he was taken aback when the 22-year-old made those claims after the match, insisting that he heard nothing directed at the International pair.
“I was shocked that Tom said that in the interviews afterwards. I was with everyone that was watching that and I didn’t hear anyone specifically saying ‘F you, Tom’, or anything negative towards them,” he said.
“There was cussing, but it was towards our team, going LFG, ‘let’s go’. And we’re in the heat of battle, we were just cheering for us, so yes, if he’s talking about us cussing, yeah, there was cussing, but it was in the direction of our team going, ‘let’s go’.
“We’re trying to bring the energy, we are 75 people that are watching for Team USA and they had whatever, 20, 30,000, so we’re going to try and make any noise we can and keep our guys pumped up and give them some momentum. From my understanding, that’s what happened.”
Why the Presidents Cup is better for the moments where tension boils over
It would be interesting to see whether Kim would still stand by those comments or whether he got a little confused about whether any swearing was actually directed at him and Si-woo Kim. Whether there were words which did cross the line or not, it was not the best look from the youngster to make those comments straight after a defeat.
However, Kim was, by far, the youngest player on either side. And it has been clear across his appearances in 2022 and 2024 that he is incredibly passionate about the International team. So it would be completely unfair to criticise Kim too strongly for what he said in the heat of the moment.
Team events are always better for the spice which gets added to them – and the Presidents Cup has come in for criticism in the wake of another comfortable American win. While some of the criticism of Clark may have gone over the top, it will surely help whet the appetite for 2026 when the event heads to Medinah.
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