On the first day of the Presidents Cup, Scottie Scheffler and Si Woo Kim had some tit-for-tat going on. Scheffler won that round, but Friday was a different story. Si Woo Kim and his partner, Byeong Hun An, got even with Scheffler and Russell Henley in the last match of the day. The crowd went bananas after Kim sunk his putt and, amidst all the noise, Scheffler and the Americans stood and watched.

Scheffler says he was very aware of the crowd’s noise throughout the day, saying, “The environment, like Tony said, today from yesterday, was drastically different. I thought today the crowd did a great job, got into it, gave the guys some good energy, and they fed off of it.” Indeed, many people commented on the quietness of the Canadian crowd, including Tom Kim, who had expressed his desire to hear the crowd cheering more.

Scheffler, too, seems to like the noise and hearing the fans making themselves part of the event. He said, “It’s one team against another, and I think it’s pretty cool. I think it’s a fun event. I loved playing away games when I was in high school, playing basketball. Hearing stuff from the crowd, I think, only makes us more motivated to go out there and do our best.” His experience in high school basketball will come in valuable as the crowds are much louder and closer on the court than on the course.

But he will have to dig deep in order to perform in the coming days when the crowds will be much larger as the event moves to the weekend. He has outlined his goal as “It’s our job to go out there tomorrow and do our best and hopefully keep them a little bit quieter.” It is going to be difficult for Scottie Scheffler to do that with the International team now after they were bit between their teeth and weekend crowds incoming. But, how did Tom Kim make a difference on Friday, even as he sat out the day’s golf?

Tom Kim riles up the crowd

Speaking about the crowd after the first round, Tom Kim was not happy, and he got to changing the state of things early on the second day. He said he had one goal on Friday, which was to get to the first tee early and rile up the crowd.

Indeed, the crowd became a much bigger part of the event on Friday, chanting ‘I-N-T’ repeatedly to get the players pumped, as well as making a lot more noise as the matches progressed. Kim spoke to this after the round, saying, “Our I-N-T fans really brought it today and we couldn’t be more thankful. I wish they bring it on the weekend as well because we’re gonna need it.” And that is very true for the International side as they go into the pivotal third day on which there will be eight matches in total with four four-ball in the morning session and foursomes in the evening against the top golfers in the world, most of whom rank higher than several of the International team members.