Xander Schauffele was involved in a flashpoint with Tom Kim at the Presidents Cup (Image: GETTY)
Xander Schauffele has credited Tom Kim for ‘bringing the heat’ at the Presidents Cup after butting heads with him during the tournament. Team USA retained the trophy but were pushed hard by the International Team with tempers flaring on the course at times.Kim accused Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay of lacking sportsmanship and swearing at him during a particularly tense moment. It came after he was denied a gimme by the American duo and , illustrating just how short the putt was., insisting that he and Cantlay treated their rivals with ‘utmost respect’ at all times. Reflecting on the flashpoints, he praised Kim and his playing partner Si Woo Kim for ‘bringing the heat’ with their hot-headed antics.
The two players were complimentary of each other after the tournament (Image: GETTY)
“This course might be, I don’t know, 7,000 yards, but those boys cover about 9,000 yards in a round of golf, at least the ones that I played against them,” said Schauffele.”They hit unbelievable shots. PC [Patrick Cantlay] and I saw it. They were very hard. PC and I had to bring out some of our best stuff to beat them last night. They came out to the last hole. It’s really good for golf. As a competitor, I respect it.”It’s not how I go about my business, but I respect it because that’s how they play. If I was running around and getting fired up, I might make bogey on the next hole, but those boys are running around and birdieing every frickin’ hole on us.”I have a lot of respect for everyone on that team, but the Koreans definitely bring the heat, no doubt.”
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Kim apologised to Schauffele on the final day of the Presidents Cup, approaching him on the course and offering a sporting handshake. He blamed himself for getting caught up in the heat of the moment and said he never meant to cause controversy with his comments.”I just didn’t think it would be so negative,” explained Kim. “When I played with Patrick and Xander, obviously we’ve battled a few times and they’ve always been such great competitors. I’ve always felt like there’s such good sportsmanship between us.”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 apologise if it came out wrongly. It was just this and this happened, but if it affected you guys so negatively, I really do apologise’.”This event is all about doing things you would never do and creating energy and doing all these things. 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.”