The great golf prodigy turned mysterious hermit is returning to the sport. Anthony Kim is expected to return to professional golf for the first time in 12 years and enter this week’s LIV Golf event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as a wild card.
LIV Commissioner Greg Norman teases King’s return A video on social media on MondayKing’s presence on the practice field didn’t go unnoticed Tuesday. Josh Carpenter, Sports Business Journal took a photo Later, YouTube golfer Andy Carter posted a video of Kim’s driving range on Instagram.
King, 38, was once one of golf’s most rising stars, winning two PGA Tour events and being named to the Ryder Cup team by 23 strokes with his exciting talent and powerful personality. Attracting golf enthusiasts who were previously hard to reach. Then, at age 26, King retired from professional golf due to injury and never returned.
Since then, King has become a cult-like figure, partly because he was such a popular player with so much potential, but also because of the mystery surrounding his absence. During his playing days, King was known as a party-goer with whom he had a complicated relationship with his love of golf. So when injuries sideline him and reports surface that he’s living on an insurance policy worth $10 to $20 million, it means there’s even more curiosity about whether he really can’t play anymore.
So when Golf.com reported in January that Kim was considering a return and was in talks with the PGA Tour and LIV, interest soared. Now, King is finally back and playing for LIV, a league backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which, in addition to receiving huge prize money at the tournament, may also provide King with a signing bonus to help with insurance. Kim is expected to compete this week as a singles player and not as a member of LIV’s 13 teams.
Complicating factors are what Kim’s return means and what will happen. Before Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spies, King was golf’s great young prodigy, poised to supplant Tiger Woods in the golf world’s spotlight. The Los Angeles native played golf at the University of Oklahoma and played on the Walker Cup-winning team before turning pro at age 22. King won two PGA Tour events at Quail Valley and TPC Potomac in his second full professional season and became the first golfer under 25 to win in the same season since Woods in 2000. Played in two tournaments. At the end of the 2008 season, King was 23 years old, ranked sixth in the world and one of the sport’s most rising stars.
With his aggressive playing style and outgoing personality, King instantly became a star among a demographic not always accessible to the game of golf. At 23, he was named to the 2008 Ryder Cup team – still young to earn a spot on the team – and helped the U.S. team with a 5-4 loss to Sergio Garcia First win in nine years. The next spring, King competed in the 2009 Masters and broke the tournament record with 11 birdies in the second round. That was probably his peak.
He never actually became the star people expected him to be. He won only one event, the Houston Open, and slowly dropped from No. 6 in the world to No. 24, No. 31, and No. 78 from 2008 to 2012. Injuries may be a big part of that, but King’s memory is also important. Most likely rooted in 2008 rather than the overall picture.
He exudes incredible talent. The world has seen this happen, and now as Commissioner of LIV Golf, I am honored to be able to give this star a chance at a second life. Welcome back to the LIV Golf family. The golf world misses you. pic.twitter.com/HNzsXPgFUp
— Greg Norman (@SharkGregNorman) February 26, 2024
Much of his rise came with a thumb injury, which King later said he compensated for, and tendonitis in his wrist. In 2012, he missed three games and eventually ruptured his left Achilles tendon.
While his absence meant King didn’t become the star some had hoped, it also meant he didn’t have to experience the normal highs and lows of a career. All young players’ shine eventually fades, but leaving means being frozen in time, a beacon of potential.
But because of this, gold may have value. Many people are interested in him, and fans may tune in to LIV to see how Kim is doing. The next question is how long this interest can be sustained if King doesn’t play well. Part of that is up to him.
Must read
(Photo: Michael Cohen/Getty Images)
