COOL KANG DEFIES CHEAT CLAIMS TO SHINE

IT IS a heck of a thing to be accused of cheating by a fellow pro — and to be playing in the Open on the strength of being given the benefit of the doubt by a rules official. The matter took on a still sharper focus yesterday when the accused, South Korean Sung Kang, opened with a fine 69 to be on the leaderboard following the first round. ‘If you can sleep at night, go right ahead,’ were the last words that his accuser, American Joel Dahmen, said to Kang after their heated dispute. Kang looks like he sleeps just fine, judging by his skilfully crafted two-under- par score, and the manner in which he fronted up afterwards. One polite question about his round was followed by about 25 on the alleged cheating incident that shocked golf earlier this month — and he didn’t flinch. ‘I’d like to say a lot, but I know that it’s better I don’t because the longer it goes on the more it will affect me,’ he said. Asked if he’d tried to contact Dahmen since the matter arose at Tiger Woods’s PGA Tour event in Washington won by Francesco Molinari earlier this month, Kang confirmed he sought him out last week. ‘It didn’t go great,’ he said. What on earth could have prompted Dahmen to take to social media after the incident and post this incendiary tweet: ‘Kang cheated. He took a bad drop from a hazard. I argued until I was blue. I lost.’ The incident happened on the par-five 10th during the final round where Kang’s gamble to go for the green with his second shot backfired when the ball disappeared into marshland. Dahmen argued that Kang’s ball never crossed the hazard, meaning the South Korean would have had to play under penalty from the same spot. Kang (left) disagreed and a rules official was called in. After a heated 25-minute discussion, in which the official interviewed the players and caddies, he sided with Kang on the basis there was no clear evidence to disprove his story. As the ball was now decreed to have crossed the hazard, Kang was allowed to drop 30 yards from the green, from where he got down in a chip and putt to save par. He went on to finish third, to claim one of the three spots available at the Open here at Carnoustie. He might hope for the story to go away, but there’s no chance of that if he continues to navigate Carnoustie’s hazards with considerable aplomb and remain in contention.