As 2024 comes to a close, SI Golf’s writers and editors reflect on the year’s craziest stories.
Pro golfers never really vanish. Some have their full-time tour days come to an end, yet will still emerge from time to time in a far-flung tournament or a qualifier. The better players can stay in the pro orbit for decades with careers that keep going past age 50, thanks to “senior” tours.
Pro golfers never really vanish. Which is what made Anthony Kim a near-mythical figure.
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A PGA Tour winner at 22, a top-10 player in the world, a Ryder Cupper at 23 that buzzsawed Sergio Garcia in Sunday singles in a U.S. win in 2008, Kim had the golf world in the palm of his hand for a couple years—and then was gone.
An injury sidelined the Californian in 2012 but he never came back, and with every year his absence became more puzzling yet fascinating to diehard golf fans. Did he trade in a pro career for an insurance policy? Had he lost his game? Where exactly was AK?
He had disappeared. Then LIV Golf brought him back.
In April, Kim met with American media at Doral and explained how off the golf grid he was. He didn’t know Brooks Koepka had gone on a major run. Barely knew that Tiger Woods won the 2019 Masters. Didn’t know about changes to the Rules of Golf.
Yet he didn’t provide all the answers to his absence, citing an in-production documentary. But one question had been answered already—he was very, very rusty.
Kim joined LIV Golf as a wild-card player, unaffiliated with any team, and in his first event in March at Jeddah finished last by 11 shots. He was then 50th in Hong Kong, last by six shots in Miami, last again in Adelaide.
He only finished in the top 40 once all season, yet is said to be returning in 2025.
Bob Harig: Kim’s redemption story is compelling as he clearly has overcome addiction and injury to play elite level golf again. The problem is his lack of results. Kim more or less played no golf for the better part of a decade, so it shouldn’t ben surprising. His immense skills, however, allow him to be even as good as he is now. Can he build on that? That is the big question.
Jeff Ritter: I always imagined “Anthony Kim returns to golf” to be a seismic story on par with “Loch Ness monster found.” In the end, it’s cool to see him back, healthy and competing. But his return was somehow more anticlimactic than I anticipated.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Golf’s Most Shocking Stories of 2024: Anthony Kim Ends Exile to Join LIV Golf.
