Robert Allenby and Anthony Kim paired together at the HSBC Champions event
It appears the tournament directors at the HSBC Champions event have a sense of humour. When the pairings for the first two rounds of the World Golf Championship event being contested
this week in Shanghai, China, were announced, one in particular strongly suggested that names weren’t just drawn randomly from a hat.
Australian Robert Allenby and American Anthony Kim found themselves with the same tee time, along with Edoardo Molinari. For those who don’t remember, Allenby and Kim have a rocky history
because of some controversial comments made by Allenby regarding Kim’s behaviour at the 2009 Presidents Cup in San Francisco.
Playing against each other in the Sunday singles session, Kim crushed Allenby 5 and 3 to win a point for the American side. After the lopsided loss, Allenby lashed out at the 25-year-old.
"Maybe we should all take the theory of Anthony Kim," Allenby said after the match. "Get home at 4 o'clock [in the morning] and then go shoot 6 under."
The Australian also referred to Kim as the PGA Tour's “current John Daly,” the former British Open champion who has had numerous issues with alcohol abuse. According to Allenby, Kim arrived
at the hotel “sideways” at 4 a.m. He also referred to Kim as “the loosest cannon on that team.”
Fred Couples, who captained the U.S. team that year, said the comments were hurtful towards Kim.
"It kind of crushed him,” he said. “It was the best week that he ever had and those comments kind of crushed him."
While Kim denied the allegations, he did add some fuel to the fire, saying “If Robert had that to say, he maybe needs to practice a little more.”
After the comments were made, Allenby released a statement offering his apologies.
“I did call Anthony to apologize for anything that I said or inferred that could possibly portray Anthony as anything less than a professional of the highest caliber," read the statement.
Kim said he accepted Allenby’s apology and will be “moving on.”
Kim’s last victory came this past April when he won the Shell Houston Open in a play-off while Allenby has not won an event since 2001.
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