For Anthony Kim, this week at the Promotion School of LIV Golf is not just a competitive exam. The Californian competes from this Friday in Florida as he was exempt from the first phase. After his decline following two years in LIV, his perspective has changed. This week is not all or nothing; it’s just another stop on a much longer and more complex journey, where golf has ceased to be an absolute end and has become a tool for personal balance. Kim himself sums it up without drama or grandiosity: he wants to compete at the highest level again, yes, but his life no longer depends solely on it.
His return to professional golf, after more than a decade away from top competition, has been gradual and, at many times, irregular. He acknowledges this frankly in the lead-up to his start. In his first year back, the goal was almost elementary: “I was trying not to hit a shank.” He had only been training for a few months when he returned to tournaments, with few external expectations but a clear awareness of his talent and what he had been capable of in the past.
Two years later, the scenario is different. Kim feels he has started to find his place. He doesn’t talk about immediate results or absolute certainties, but about feelings. About shots that return, about weeks when the game improves even if the leaderboard doesn’t always reflect it. His recent stint in Asia, especially in tournaments of the International Series, left him with positive signs. “I played better than the results say,” he explains, a common phrase among golfers, but in his case, it is accompanied by real and sustained evolution.
That progression fuels his conviction that he can compete with the best again. He doesn’t see it as a revenge or an obsession, but as a tangible possibility if the work continues. In fact, Kim clarifies that he will play the International Series next year no matter what happens this week at the School. His schedule doesn’t depend solely on securing one of the three direct spots for LIV, something that, paradoxically, frees him from some of the pressure.
Pressure, in fact, is one of the recurring themes in his discourse. Kim admits that today he manages it very differently from the young man who dazzled in 2005 or 2008. The life experiences of the last 20 years have completely changed his perspective. “I am a completely different person,” he admits. Now he is a husband, a father, and someone who doesn’t hide having had to fight serious problems off the course.
In this context, golf plays a key role in his rehabilitation and sobriety process. Not as an isolated refuge, but as a structure. Training, competing, travelling with his family, and spending time outdoors are part of a routine that helps him stay focused. “One of my goals after leaving rehab was to be outside more,” he explains. Practising ten hours a day means being outdoors, surrounded by nature, with his daughter running around the greens and bunkers. A simple image that says much more than any slogan.
Kim doesn’t deny that returning to the life of a golfer has its difficulties, but he clearly distinguishes between life and golf. The hardest part, he assures, hasn’t been the professional environment, but the game itself, with its constant demands and lack of immediate rewards even when improving. Even so, he feels grateful for the opportunity to be there, to compete again, and to do so accompanied by his family.
The setting also fits well with this vital moment. Black Diamond Ranch has pleasantly surprised him. Anthony Kim continues to pursue the high level, the majors, and the most demanding golf, but he no longer does so from urgency or emptiness. Today, golf is part of his life, not his sole reason for being. Whether he wins a card this week or not, it is probably his greatest victory.
