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It’s been more than a decade since Anthony Kim participated in a professional golf tournament, and while it seemed like the man who was once positioned as The Next Big Thing was done for good, LIV Golf has secured a major victory by inking him to a deal.
It’s kind of hard to truly understand the mystique surrounding Anthony Kim unless you remember the hype he was able to generate after tying for second place in his PGA Tour debut at the Valero Open in 2006.
The California native earned his card the following year and wasted absolutely no time becoming a fan favorite.
In 2008, he racked up his first victory at the age of 23 before securing a second a couple of months later shortly after his 24th birthday. He finished that season sitting in 6th place in the Official World Golf Rankings before helping the United States win the Ryder Cup by wiping the floor with Sergio Garcia.
Kim was not just a talented golfer but one who was absolutely dripping with swagger and confidence on and off of the golf course (it was hard not to love the flashy, oversized belt buckles he normally rocked while walking the links).
Unfortunately, his meteoric rise was marred by the injuries he began to grapple with in 2010, and after undergoing surgery to repair an Achilles tendon he tore in 2012, Kim decided to cash in on a $10 million insurance policy that required him to give up pro golf for good.
Kim has largely avoided the spotlight since then, but things took a very interesting turn earlier this year when the world learned he was looking into making a comeback at the age of 38.
The biggest sticking point was the fact that he’d have to return the insurance money he accepted in order to stage his grand return, but it wasn’t a stretch to assume LIV Golf would be willing to dig into its laughably deep pockets to address that issue.
On Monday, Greg Norman confirmed that was the case, as the CEO of an organization that needs all of the publicity it can get posted a video hyping up Kim’s comeback, which will officially commence when he heads to Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for the tournament that’s slated to kick off on March 1st.
https://twitter.com/SharkGregNorman/status/1762129462722752550
There’s no arguing this is easily the most anticipated event in the fairly short history of LIV Golf, and it’ll be very interesting to see how Kim fares after being away from the game for over 10 years.