Anthony Kim walked off a golf course 12 years ago a broken man. Now he’s back

When you search the name “Anthony Kim”, one of the most common questions Google tells you people ask is: what happened to Anthony Kim?

How long have you got?

On this overcast day, a stone’s throw from the driving range at Adelaide’s Grange Golf Club, the man who seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth is recalling stories of addiction, psychiatric treatment, countless surgeries, pet monkeys and playing golf with hired clubs in a bathing suit.

His hair is long and tied back in a ponytail, shirt slightly untucked, and he’s wearing a white cap with a big LIV Golf logo on it, a nod to Greg Norman’s rebel golf circuit. LIV has drawn back the curtain on the sport’s greatest enigma after a decade out of the spotlight.

“I don’t know if I love golf, but I really enjoy it,” Kim tells this masthead in a rare interview. “I’m falling in love with the game. I realise that I never enjoyed it the way I have now.”

Tiger Woods once said he’d never seen another golfer play like Kim, using a choked-down grip and bursting onto the scene as seemingly a generational player, with the swag to match a scintillating game.

He won the first of his three PGA Tour events in 2008, was a star of the next year’s Presidents Cup and finished third at the Masters in 2010 as he rose as high as world No.6.

But then, he was gone.

The last time anyone saw Kim on a golf course was during the first round of a PGA Tour event in North Carolina 12 years ago. Kim had been battling injuries, and by the next day he officially withdrew from the event with what was described as an Achilles problem. He was just 26.

“I was thinking ‘I can’t wait to get home and maybe go to a party’,” Kim says. “I wasn’t focused on golf.”

There was no press conference to announce why he’d been away from the game, no media statement nor even a social media post (Kim didn’t use it until two months ago). He just vanished from public life.

For years after, Kim turned into an online phenomenon. Internet sleuths reported sightings of him, mostly inaccurate, and the longer no one knew where he was, the more the intrigue soared.

But the real story was far deeper and serious.

His body had broken down on him, and over the course of his absence from the game, Kim had seven surgeries: three on his shoulder, a spinal fusion procedure similar to the one that saved Woods’ career, one on an Achilles, one on a hand and one on a knee.

But of far greater concern was his battle with addiction and the deterioration of his mental health. Doctors told him if he kept going down the same path, he wouldn’t have long to live.

“When I was at a low point in my life, I was scared I would wake up in the morning because of all the things I would have to deal with,” Kim says. “But now the biggest fear I have is not waking up in the morning, not being able to love and support my family.

“A lot of amazing people have pushed me to talk to other people and talk to professionals. At one point I had to be away from my family for a while and get help. That was a low point in my life. I’ve never been one to talk about anything emotional, but a lot of people were there for me – people I didn’t expect to be there.”

When he stepped away from the game, Kim completely detached himself from golf, and at one stage had six dogs and two monkeys as pets.

He was only vaguely aware of Woods’ phenomenal Masters win in 2019, and estimates he didn’t pick up a club for “six or seven years” after his last tournament in 2012. He had about 15 swings on a practice range. A year later, he did the same when visiting his mum and finally got back out on the course with some friends.

“I played nine holes in a bathing suit using rental clubs,” Kim jokes. “Golf wasn’t even in the picture for me.”

Did he understand why people were so fascinated with his whereabouts?

“I was so far removed from golf I didn’t know it was that big of a deal,” he says. “There was one instance, I didn’t have social media back then, where I got 200 messages of me taking a picture with a guy at a breakfast shop with my dog.

“I guess people started sending that on social media, and it became a viral thing. I was so confused because I was just having breakfast with my wife and dog. It’s something we do all the time. For people to think that’s a big deal, I didn’t understand it.

“Now that I’ve got clarity, it’s super humbling for people to even give a shit.”

What isn’t in dispute is Kim receiving a multimillion-dollar insurance payout from the PGA Tour when he stopped playing professionally.

He is still prevented from discussing it, but only a few months ago the obsession over his whereabouts prompted both Norman and the PGA Tour to inquire about whether he was planning to return to golf.

Norman’s Saudi-backed tour won out, a fate Kim described as “like hitting the lottery without buying a lottery ticket”. He’d only just started helping wife Emily learn the game herself.

Last month, Kim arrived at LIV’s Jeddah event, wearing baggy pants and Vans shoes. He wore a plain T-shirt without a collar. On it, the words “girl dad” were printed. When he teed it up for his shot in a professional event few thought they would ever see, he had a scribble of a heart shape around the letter “B” on his ball. The marking was a tribute to his two-year-old daughter, Bella.

“I thought I would be nervous, but seeing that ‘B’ calmed me down,” Kim says. “It was very surreal. A year-and-a-half ago, I didn’t know how much longer I had to live. I heard Greg say the journey of 10,000 miles starts with one step. That was my first step.”

In three events so far, understandably Kim has struggled to put together a good tournament. Competing as a wildcard not attached to a LIV franchise, Kim has finished 53rd, 50th and 53rd, albeit shooting five-under in his final round at Hong Kong, a glimpse of his immense talent.

But as he practised in Adelaide earlier this week before the LIV event which starts on Friday, a man approached him with his daughter and shared his own personal story. He said he was touched by Kim’s comeback at 38 and personal struggles.

“The difference between my first career, and where I’m at now, is I used to want to prove to other people I could do it at this level,” he says.

“It took away from me taking care of myself. I based my self-worth around what other people were thinking, as opposed to how I feel about myself when I go to bed at night.

“It doesn’t matter what you believe in, but I believe there’s a higher power, and I pray that I can deal with the demons every day presents.

“Unfortunately, at a younger age, I didn’t deal with them well, and I did a lot of things to cover them. I’m a leader of my family and I do feel like I have a bigger purpose on this earth.

“I’m going to do my best to spread that message.”

Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.