Anthony Kim is back as a professional golfer after nearly 12 years away from the game.
The enigmatic American, perhaps unsurprisingly, sits bottom of the 54-man leaderboard after one round in Jeddah, where he looked nervy and rusty.
He bogeyed his 1st hole, the par 5 18th, after topping his second shot and then hit a shank on the 5th to find himself two-over-par after six. His one and only birdie followed at the 6th to get him back to one-over but he continued dropping shots on the way home to finish at six-over.
Kim's round of 76 featured seven bogeys and one birdie, leaving him two strokes adrift on his own in last place and 14 back of the leaders.
So what were the key takeaways from Anthony Kim's first round back?
Rust
Unusprisingly, Kim looked rusty in what was his first competitive round of golf since May 2012.
Royal Greens tends to be a true ball striker golf course and Kim's long game was certainly found out on Friday in Jeddah, with the American struggling to find fairways and greens throughout. His short game looked sharp at times but he continually put himself in tricky spots all day, leading to plenty of dropped shots.
He holed a good bogey putt at the 5th and then a long birdie putt at the 6th, but there were three-putts in there and a short birdie putt miss at his final hole. He'll surely start finding the bottom of the cup more often as the rust starts to wear off.
Drones and cameras
After piping his opening tee shot down the middle, he proceeded to top his second shot - with CEO Greg Norman revealing in the booth that he was put off by a drone flying overhead.
It will have been the first time Kim has hit a competitive shot with a drone flying around him, and the cameras following him throughout will certainly take some getting used to again. Kim was the story of the day, with his every move followed by cameras - he'll surely have had plenty of nerves.
Shank
“Let’s see how Anthony Kim’s golfing brain is working.”*shAnK* pic.twitter.com/LjllJIco2eMarch 1, 2024
After a bogey start and four consecutive pars to settle him down, he hit a cold shank on the 5th hole that immediately started doing the rounds on social media.
It led to bogey, but he bounced straight back with a birdie on the 6th.
Kim isn't the only big name to hit a shank in their comeback this year, with Tiger Woods doing the same at the Genesis Invitational just a few weeks ago.
Driving distance
Kim appeared to be struggling to keep up with playing partner Cameron Smith off the tee, who himself isn't one of the longest hitters on the circuit.
Some of his drives only carried around 250 yards and many had ball speeds in the high 160s, which, despite the wind in Jeddah, will leave him well behind the likes of Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau's big hitting.
No doubles
Big bounce back birdie for @AnthonyKim_Golf 🙌#LIVGolf pic.twitter.com/s4300a6oHMMarch 1, 2024
As well as his bounce-back birdie, a positive from Kim's round was his lack of doubles. Eight players made doubles on day one, and he wasn't one of them.
Double bogeys are easy to come by on championship courses under the gun, so he can take some confidence that his round featured no real disaster holes.
Instead, it was a slow bleed of bogeys after bogeys, so he'll be looking to turn those into pars over the course of the weekend and the rest of his season on LIV Golf, where he'll be playing in every event as an individual wildcard, aside from the Team Championship.
We found out what made him return
During Kim's opening round, Greg Norman was in the LIV commentary booth where he revealed what exactly made Kim return.
Was it the money? His desire to compete again? Clearly both of those were factors, but it sounds like it was due to his wife's desire to learn how to play the game.
"His interest back in the game of golf was created because Emily his wife wanted to learn how to play the game of golf," Norman revealed.
"So the two of them went out on the golf course, Emily said he’s a very, very good teacher and she’s fallen in love with the game so they started playing golf 2, 3, 4 times a week together."
He is box office
Despite not having his best stuff, Kim was in one of the featured groups and it was great to see his aggressive swing again.
The three-time PGA Tour winner was constantly trending on X and plenty of Americans tuned in despite the first tee time coming at 3.15am.
Greg Norman also revealed that he has had a boost to the league's ticket sales - and that he could even inspire a LIV Golf Korea event.
"Well our ticket sales in Hong Kong next week have started to sky rocket," Norman said on the broadcast. "The interest out of Korea, we have some people coming down from Korea next week.
"Obviously AK getting back to Korea, his mother still lives in Korea, so all of a sudden in a very short period of time we’ve stimulated new interest and is that great for LIV? 100% it’s great for LIV.
