Anthony Kim finally is coming out of hiding. So, what now?
So, Anthony Kim is going to play tournament golf again, the LIV Golf way. That is, payment up front. For more than a decade now, Kim has been paid, by an insurance company, not to play. This week, at a LIV event in Saudi Arabia, Kim will start a new chapter of his enigmatic life.
Good luck, kid.
Excuse me, this just in: He’s 38.
Well, good luck, Mr. Kim
To give this news the gravitas it doesn’t deserve, GOLF.com reported on Jan. 25 that Kim was considering a return to tournament golf. Word of Kim’s Saudi start first surfaced on X over the weekend by way of @FlushingIt and @LIVGolfUpdates, and soon after Golf Channel reporter Rex Hoggard, as well-sourced as anybody covering the professional game today, gave the news more credibility with a story citing unnamed sources. LIV still hasn’t officially confirmed that Kim is in the Jeddah field, but on Monday morning, it came awfully close, dropping a moody teaser video that showed images of Kim hitting shots against a desertscape. Greg Norman and his people must have made it worth Kim’s while to sign with LIV — for how many appearances we don’t know — just as they did for various other golfers with familiar names and past-post games.
To give this news the gravitas it doesn’t deserve, GOLF.com reported on Jan. 25 that Kim was considering a return to tournament golf. Word of Kim’s Saudi start first surfaced on X over the weekend by way of @FlushingIt and @LIVGolfUpdates, and soon after Golf Channel reporter Rex Hoggard, as well-sourced as anybody covering the professional game today, gave the news more credibility with a story citing unnamed sources. LIV still hasn’t officially confirmed that Kim is in the Jeddah field, but on Monday morning, it came awfully close, dropping a moody teaser video that showed images of Kim hitting shots against a desertscape. Greg Norman and his people must have made it worth Kim’s while to sign with LIV — for how many appearances we don’t know — just as they did for various other golfers with familiar names and past-post games.
Kim has not played any tournament golf anywhere since June 2012, when he had surgery on his left Achilles tendon. It has been widely and credibly reported that Kim, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, accepted an insurance-policy payment that paid him at least $10 million, and maybe much more, but prevented him from playing tournament golf. He became golf’s Greta Garbo, disappearing from the golf scene altogether.
The details of Kim’s insurance policy are not publicly known, but it is possible that its terms have simply expired, leaving him open to return to professional golf. He could have tried to stage a comeback on the PGA Tour, playing in events by sponsor’s exemption or by using his Past Champion status. But that tried-and-true comeback method would have come with no guarantees. The starting point to the LIV Golf model is a contract with guarantees.
Pay to play is the LIV way, and the fundamental difference between LIV Golf and every other prominent tour in the world, including the PGA, LPGA and DP World tours. On those circuits and others, and by long-standing tradition, tournaments paid players on the basis of the numbers on their scorecards. They earn it wasn’t a marketing phrase. It was a founding principle. The emergence of LIV Golf has challenged that principle.
Kim might play well on easy courses, where you can drive it anywhere and your pitching and chipping off flat lies with perfect grass to welcome-mat greens. That’s what he’ll find at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in Jeddah, where he’ll reportedly make his LIV debut on March 1, 2 and 3, in a no-cut, 54-hole event featuring 54 players, two of whom, Kim and one other, will have no team affiliation. It would be much harder to imagine Kim qualifying for a U.S. Open by way of a 36-hole qualifier on a short, tight course with little greens and wet rough.
If you’re looking to see Kim play in any of the four majors this year, don’t hold your breath. If you’re looking to watch the Saudi event live and on a screen near you, tell your smart speaker to play the CW Network, if you can make the play and your sleep schedule align. At least you’ll get to hear the wit and wisdom of David Feherty, the lead broadcaster for LIV on the CW. Riyadh is eight hours ahead of East Coast time in the United States.
