Kevin Kisner and Camilo Villegas’ war of words at the Presidents Cup: Full unfiltered exchange explored
US vice-captain Kevin Kisner and International Team vice-captain Camilo Villegas were involved in a heated exchange during the first day of the Presidents Cup. While not much was audible to the fans, the visuals suggested that the exchange wasn't pleasant at all.
On Thursday, September 26, during the third fourball match of Day 1 of the Presidents Cup, Tom Kim and Sungjae Im walked off to the ninth hole while Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley were still on the eighth hole. Usually, this is not considered great sportsmanship, and the unwritten rule is to wait for the opponent to hole out.
Following this, Kisner and Villegas got into a war of words over the incident. Later, Kisner was quoted as saying via Golf Channel:
"They took gamesmanship too far and over the line on sportsmanship and lose some integrity. I thought it was pretty bush league and I told Camilo that if that’s the way they want to do it, then game on. If you can piss off my No. 1 player in the world, then I’m all for it.”
Kim and Im's actions weren't well received by golf pundits and fans alike. Golf Channel’s John Wood, who was on the course during the first day of the Presidents Cup, was also surprised by their behavior.
"They are 60 yards away and are not watching," he said as per Golf week "Things are definitely getting a little chippy right now.”
Wood reported that it was Villegas who instigated the duo to walk off.
"He said let’s go and they walked over there," he added.
Wood added that following the incident, Kisner confronted Camilo. Although he couldn't hear the exact words, it didn’t look friendly. Later, Kisner revealed his exact words to Golf Channel's Brad Faxon.
"If you’re going to do that, then it’s game on."
Things didn’t end there, as they got into an argument again on the sixteenth hole. As per Todd Lewis, Villegas told Kisner that he was being overly sensitive.
"Because I play by the rules," Kisner replied.
Villegas claimed that leaving the green wasn't against the rule.
"Nothing against the rules of leaving the green."
"There was no reason to stay there" - Tom Kim reflects on the 'walk-off' controversy at the Presidents Cup
During the post-round press conference, Tom Kim stated that they were focused on their game.
"I made a putt, and whether he made it or not wasn’t going to make a difference," he said. "There was no reason to stay there and look at him putt. It doesn’t help us at all. It wasn’t trying to be cheap or do anything like that. We were focused on our own game."
Following the opening round of the Presidents Cup, team US has taken a big lead of 5-0 over the International team. The hosts will look to make some recovery in the foursome round on Friday.