Americans won the day, but Tom Kim, Si Woo Kim stole the show

MONTREAL – The amphitheater awaited for Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim.

Their tee shots on the par-3 13th were already on the green and with a 3-up lead with five to play in the morning Four-ball, they were feeling it. The Koreans bounded off the tee, making their way down the hill toward the green that was surrounded by packed grandstands. Until then, those fans had little to cheer for.

The first two matches arrived at 13 with the Americans leading and neither International Team duo able to cut into the lead. The fans were understandably a bit restless.

Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim weren’t having it.

Raising their arms as they walked in lockstep, the Kims implored the crowd to rise. And as if the crowd was in a trance, they stood. A hole later, Tom Kim poured in a 20-foot birdie and pranced around the green as the crowd chanted “I-N-T.” Then, in a snap, Tom Kim asked them to quiet for the Americans to finish. The crowd followed suit.

If anything was made clear in Montreal on Saturday it was this: Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim have the juice that the International Team has long craved. It powers them and forces their teammates and the masses standing outside the ropes to follow them.

The Kims earned the International Team’s only point in Saturday morning’s Four-ball session – a decisive 4-and-3 victory over Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark – then authored a memorable comeback in the afternoon Foursomes that fell just short to Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, who birdied the 18th for a 1-up victory.

The International Team has needed someone like them. In the team’s three-decade history, they’ve seldom had a no-doubt pairing – a team that could be reliably sent out to win more than they lost and infuse energy toward their cause. It will take more than two Presidents Cups to ascertain whether the Kims have staying power on the course, but a 2-1 record in three is a good start. Perhaps more importantly, they also bring the showboating, pimp-stepping confidence that the International Team, forever the little brother, has seldom had.

The potential of Team Kim crystallized on the 16th hole as darkness descended on Royal Montreal Golf Club on Saturday evening. Trailing 1-down, Si Woo Kim holed an improbable chip shot from well below the green to win the hole with birdie. Si Woo Kim sprinted across the green, and in an ode to his favorite basketball player Stephen Curry, pressed his hands together on the side of his head as if to signal he was putting the other team to sleep, sending his team and the crowd ablaze.

“That's what we needed,” Si Woo Kim said. “I didn't expect the ball was going to go in, but I was so excited.”

It was the crescendo in a day full of emotional, highlight-reel moments. It helps when they’re rolling in putts from every direction. The two have gained nearly nine strokes on the greens between them this week, by far the most in the field.

Si Woo Kim closed out their morning match by holing a 17-foot birdie putt, removing his hat before the putt even reached the hole and walking it in. Early in their afternoon match, Si Woo Kim holed a putt and celebrated like he hit a 3-point shot, holding three fingers up to his eye. But it was every holed putt and every tight iron shot. All of it was met with an outsize reaction, be it a fist-bump, chest bump or roar to the crowd.

“That's what those guys bring when they play together, right?” said International Team Captain Mike Weir. “I loved what I saw in both those guys. They were great today.”

They’re certainly not afraid to provoke. Tom Kim laid down his putter after holing a short par putt on the seventh hole, expressing frustration that the putt wasn’t given. But the provocation extended toward their own fans. Tom Kim called for the International crowd to get louder after they were swept 5-0 in Thursday’s opening session. Forget that they didn’t have much to cheer. Tom Kim didn’t care.

“I think it was a little too quiet today being on home soil,” he said then. “I don't think the fans were really – I wish they would have helped us out a bit more, especially being in Canada. I know how much they love golf.”

The crowd responded in the last two days, breathing life back into the International Team and an event that looked like it was teetering on a blowout. But for full buy-in, the fans needed to see the players care. The Kims have that covered.

It was a validating day for the two Koreans, who first paired together in the 2022 Presidents Cup on Saturday at Quail Hollow. The duo took down Schauffele and Cantlay, 1-up, in Four-ball that day and broke into a similar celebration. They weren’t sure whether that magic would translate.

It did.

“Just showed us that our chemistry does work,” Tom Kim said. “It's not just a one-time thing. We only got to play once in Charlotte, but I felt like we backed it up.”

The events on the 18th green ultimately assured a difficult outcome. Cantlay poured in a 17-foot birdie while Si Woo Kim missed a 17-footer of his own to tie. That earned the Americans a 1-up victory and a 11-7 lead heading into Sunday Singles.

It’s unprecedented hill to climb. A four-point deficit has never been overcome in the final round of a Presidents Cup. It’s been done twice in the Ryder Cup, 1999 and 2012. The latter is known as the “Miracle at Medinah.”

Maybe Sunday will prove to be a Montreal miracle. Even if it doesn’t, the Kims feel like an International victory is on the horizon.

“If we fall short, we'll try again. That's what we are. We'll keep trying,” Tom Kim said. “There's going to be one time when we're going to hold the Cup, and it's going to be sometime soon.”

In years past, it’s been hard to see that path to victory. The Kims gave a sneak preview on Saturday of what it might look like when it finally does.