Anthony Kim played his last professional golf tournament in 2012. It was the Wells Fargo Championship of the PGA Tour. Back then, between injuries and other problems, his bright and promising career had entered a long and dark tunnel. Of his last ten official tournaments that year, he had missed the cut or had withdrawn in eight of them and his best position had been a 42nd at the Honda Classic. Far behind were the years of wine and roses in which Kim was practically America’s golfing boyfriend, to the point that some even labelled him as the successor to Tiger Woods.
Who knows if he already knew that May 2012 that his career was going to take a very long break. He went through surgery in June of that same year for an Achilles tendon injury and was never heard from again. Almost literally. Beyond some very sporadic appearance on social networks, in images always captured by third parties, Kim removed himself from circulation and generated all kinds of rumours and stories. He didn’t speak. He didn’t give explanations. He simply disappeared.
Kim won three PGA Tour tournaments and was a top 10 worldwide for 20 weeks. He competed in the Ryder Cup at Valhalla in 2008 and his victory in the Sunday singles over Sergio García, then Number 2 in the world, by 5 and 4, is very remembered in the United States. Precisely, 2008 was his best year as a professional. He finished in fourth position in the FedEx Cup.
Now, in 2024, at 38 years old, he has accepted the offer from LIV Golf to return to competition. He returns this very Friday in the third tournament of the year of the Saudi league, at the Royal Greens Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City. His motivation? “I have a mission: to prove that I still have the ability to win again,” he said. “One day, when I feel the time is right, I will tell my story,” he added.
Kim will play as a guest in all tournaments from now until the end of the season in LIV Golf and will try to finish among the top 24 to earn his continuity next year. That is his challenge. However, he has not thrown himself into the void in search of an opportunity. According to various unofficial sources, LIV Golf has paid him for his signing, beyond what he can earn in the tournaments, between five and seven million dollars.
Anthony Kim is going to play in LIV Golf as a guest, which means he will not be part of any team, the same as Hudson Swafford, who missed most of last season due to injury. LIV has two guests per tournament. Kim’s entry has meant the exit of Laurie Canter.
Kim’s return will undoubtedly be one of the great attractions of the LIV Golf Jeddah that starts this Friday in Saudi Arabia. There will be, of course, the Spaniards Jon Rahm, Sergio García, David Puig and Eugenio Chacarra.
