Unless you had zero expectations for Anthony Kim’s return to professional golf, your expectations were too high.
After three wins on the PGA Tour and two appearances for Team USA in the Ryder Cup and President Cup (5-2-1 overall), Kim was tabbed as golf’s next young talent in the late 2000s. Surgery to his Achilles in 2012 – and an insurance policy rumored in the $10 million range – kept Kim away from the professional game for the last 12 years before the 38-year-old joined the LIV Golf League for the 2024 season as a wild card player.
The universally loved fan-favorite started the week with a puzzling “Hi haters” hype video that fell as flat as his performance, both of which shocked fans given how high-energy Kim used to be. It’s far too early to make sweeping judgments, but if the first three rounds in Saudi Arabia are any indication of what’s to come, the former rising star may have burned out.
By any standard, no matter how low the bar was, Kim struggled in his debut at LIV Golf Jeddah with a dead-last finish at 16 over, more than 10 shots behind the penultimate player on the leaderboard at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club.
“Obviously it was a rough week. I’m excited to be playing professional golf again. I feel very blessed that I have this opportunity,” Kim said of his debut. “I’ve got a lot to work on, but I had a lot of good things go my way this week. So I’m looking forward to building on that and being in contention at some point this year.
“I’m definitely hitting the ball well. I’m doing a lot of things well. I know the scores don’t reflect that. It’s disappointing to score that way. But at the same time, I know I have a lot to build on, and I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing.”
Here’s a look at AK’s return to professional golf by the numbers.
16 over (54-hole total)
Kim’s 16-over finish is the worst in relation to par so far this LIV Golf season. Harold Varner III was 14 over to start the season in Mayakoba while Brendan Steele and Charl Schwartzel each finished 10 over in Las Vegas.
It’s also the fifth-worst finish over the last two LIV seasons:
- Sihwan Kim, 23 over (2023 LIV Golf Mayakoba)
- Lee Westwood, 20 over (2023 LIV Golf Bedminster)
- Sihwan Kim, 19 over (2023 LIV Golf Tucson)
- Martin Kaymer, 17 over (2023 LIV Golf Bedminster)
- Sihwan Kim, 17 (2023 LIV Golf Andalucia)
At 16 over, Kim’s score was 10 shots worse than the highest scores in each of the last two LIV Golf events at Royal Greens. Chase Koepka finished 6 over in 2023 a year after Pat Perez finished 6 over in 2022.
11 (shots behind 52nd)
Kim didn’t just finish last, he was a whopping 11 shots behind the next best player, Hudson Swafford at 5 over.
33 (shots behind the winner)
If you thought 11 shots behind 52nd was bad, he was 33 behind the winner Joaquin Niemann.
4 (birdies)
Kim made just four birdies over the 54 holes, the lowest total in the field. Ian Poulter made the second-fewest with five and finished T-51 at 4 over, 12 shots ahead of Kim.
90 (total putts)
Kim hit 90 putts over the 54 holes, good enough for T-41 for the week out of 54 players with an average of 1.67 per hole. There wasn’t much separation from Kim and the bottom of the pack, where Mito Pereira and Paul Casey brought up the rear with 94 total putts (1.74 per hole).
43 (percent scrambling)
Another somewhat bright spot was how Kim scrambled. For the week he was 12-of-28 to finish 52nd in scrambling at 43 percent, but he did well comparatively in the second round at 6-for-11 (55 percent). Bubba Watson finished last over the three rounds at 40 percent.
48 (percent of greens in regulation)
Kim found just 26 of the 54 greens in regulation to finish last in the metric at 48 percent. He was the lone player to finish below 50 percent.
38 (percent of fairways hit)
Kim found the fairway 16 times out of 42 attempts, good enough for 47th on the week alongside the likes of Phil Mickelson, Lucas Herbert and Marc Leishman. The only players to finish with a worse percentage were Peter Uihlein (36 percent), Bryson DeChambeau and Dean Burmester (31 percent).
294 yards (average driving distance)
This one may be a bit misleading because it was only tallied on Nos. 4 and 9, but we can only use the stats LIV provides. Kim finished with an average driving distance of 294 yards. He’s 10 years younger than Pat Perez and 12 years younger than Lee Westwood and was 2 yards behind them both.
