Bob Donnan-Imagn Images
It looked like Anthony Kim had a very bright future ahead of him when he started making a name for himself on the PGA Tour in the 2000s, but he became a very notable “What If?” thanks to how his career fizzled out. It was a fairly open secret drug abuse played a role in what transpired, and he’s opened up about the addiction issues he was able to overcome while shedding light on just how bad things ended up getting.
Anthony Kim was only 21 years old when he made his debut on the PGA Tour in 2006, and he didn’t waste any time announcing his grand arrival by finishing in second place in the first tournament he ever competed in.
It took him a couple of years to get his first win, but his consistent play helped him rocket up the Official World Golf Ranking before peaking at 6th in the autumn of 2008 (the same year he earned two of his three victories on the circuit).
Kim got his final win in 2010 to temporarily halt the OWGR slide that subsequently continued after he failed to keep the momentum going.
He found himself battling multiple injuries before undergoing surgery to fix a torn Achilles tendon in 2012, which marked the start of what seemed like it would be a permanent hiatus when he opted to cash in on an insurance policy he’d forfeit if he played professional golf again.
We were treated to a fairly surprising development in 2024 when Kim signed with LIV Golf to mount a comeback that’s left a fair amount to be desired (he ended up in second-to-last place in the individual standings last season).
The 39-year-old has been fairly transparent about the demons he was forced to overcome before returning to golf after barely touching a club for more than a decade, and on Thursday, he got incredibly candid while discussing the addiction issues he battled while marking the second anniversary of his sobriety in a post on Instagram.
Kim said he “was barely physically able to walk into rehab” when he realized he needed to get some serious help a couple of years ago but noted his addiction struggles stretched back to his days as a pro golfer, saying he was “using drugs and alcohol to numb the pain” on a daily basis and was “playing majors making porta potty stops every few holes” to get his fix.
Major props to Kim for turning things around and using his experience to encourage others in a similar position to do the same.