Joe Skovron was on the bag for Tom Kim ultimately week’s Presidents Cup.
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On Tuesday of Presidents Cup week, Max Homa was requested if there’s anyone on the International workforce he’d relish the prospect to play in opposition to.
“Joe Skovron is one of my best friends and he’s caddying for Tom [Kim] this week,” he mentioned. “I’d love to be the in that group, because Joe bleeds the red, white and blue, and he’s on the International team now.”
“We can give him grief about that,” Homa continued. “He’s been on all these teams so many times; it’s funny giving him a little bit because he’s wearing different clothes.”
It was per week of firsts for Skovron. The first time he’d donned the black-and-yellow of the International workforce, for one factor. The first time he’d caddied since splitting with Rickie Fowler after greater than a dozen years on his bag. And the primary time looping for 20-year-old Tom Kim, the Energizer Bunny who turned the Internationals’ emotional chief by week’s finish.
You could have finished a double take whenever you noticed Skovron on the weekend broadcast; he’s among the many most recognizable caddies within the enterprise due to his tenure on Fowler’s bag. Their partnership lasted from 2009 by this 12 months’s Wyndham Championship and included 5 PGA Tour wins. “It wasn’t what either of us wanted,” Fowler mentioned of the cut up, which the pair have described as mutual and amicable. It was becoming that Kim was the winner on the identical occasion that was the Fowler-Skovron swan track, incomes his manner onto the PGA Tour — and the Presidents Cup workforce — within the course of.
Kim and Skovron performed each match. And whereas Kim was upset of their 2-3 report, he delivered arguably the second of the match when he holed the profitable putt on the 18th inexperienced Saturday night to take down Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele.
Skovron was extra effusive about Kim’s play than Kim himself.
“I was so impressed,” Skovron mentioned post-round. “He loved it. He loved the big moments and I loved how he responded. That putt on 18, that whole thing, the energy and feeling like we’re back in it, him doing that and finishing off that match against those guys, they’re such good players, that’s the one I’ll remember.”
As for the strangeness of becoming a member of the Internationals and taking part in in opposition to his buddies on Team USA?
“It was definitely different, but y’know what, great group of guys,” Skovron mentioned. “I think once you get on a team, it’s not really about what country you’re from, it’s more about what team you’re with and representing that team and being all in, trying to win.”
Asked about his future with Kim, Skovron caught to caddie code and performed it cool.
“You’d have to ask Tom about that,” he mentioned.
But it was clear from watching that the 2 had been a snug pair. Kim wasn’t afraid to depend on his steerage; Skovron joined him earlier than each tee shot, they talked by each resolution and congregated afterward to rejoice or commiserate. More than as soon as, Kim would find yourself along with his arm or head on Skovron’s shoulder. In different phrases, all indicators recommend this received’t be a one-and-done.
Joe Skovron and Tom Kim on the Presidents Cup.
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Kim spoke briefly about his new looper’s success post-round.
“It was the first week and we had some success,” he mentioned. “But even in a week, he’s become a really good friend of mine. So I think we’ll be working together for a while.”
Kim’s win got here with Jacob Fleck on the bag; the 2 had been a workforce for many of 2022. But two begins later he had veteran caddie James Edmondson on the bag on the BMW Championship earlier than Skovron took over on the Presidents Cup. (For his half, Fowler’s subsequent begin got here with veteran looper Ricky Romano.)
On the PGA Tour, no player-caddie pairing is ever set in stone. But it appears like these two will probably be operating it again.
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