LA QUINTA, Calif. – Does Pat Perez owe Si Woo Kim $100,000?
We’ll let you decide.
Kim, the defending champion this week at the American Express, has a longstanding reputation for losing his cool and snapping clubs in anger. For instance, in April, Kim was in the thick of contention at the Masters when he bent his putter shaft slamming it into the ground in frustration on the 15th hole. He managed to make four closing pars using a fairway wood on Augusta National’s wicked greens, which should be worth some FedEx Points considering how hard that is to do.
But Kim has been there. done that. A week earlier, at the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio, Kim snapped a putter and had to borrow one from Perez.
“He was breaking a club every damn week,” said Perez, who famously was a hothead known to break a club or two himself when he was Kim’s age.
And with that backstory, Perez proposed a bet. As detailed in a story on PGA Tour.com, the two pros wagered $100,000 that Kim couldn’t stop snapping clubs.
From PGA Tour.com: “But he has, which begs the question: When does Perez have to pay up? Kim’s caddie, former Tour player Brian Vranesh, figured the end date should have been the turn of the calendar. But the two players didn’t make it clear, so Perez is technically still alive in the wager. That hasn’t stopped Kim from reminding the veteran Perez, always with a big smile, that he hasn’t forgotten about the $100K.”
When Golfweek asked Perez when he’d be paying up, Perez fired back.
“I’m not paying him anything,” he said. “Are you kidding me?”
Perez isn’t welshing on the bet, in fact, he claims victory, noting that Kim threw a club into the canyon at Torrey Pines during the U.S. Open.
“He didn’t finish with 14 clubs so technically he lost,” Perez said.
Perez hasn’t attempted to collect his winnings but said Kim already had treated him to a dinner for losing his temper.
“It’s all for fun,” Perez said. “Funny kid, I like him a lot.”