With win Down Under, Anthony Kim’s improbable comeback from the depths is complete

In pulling off one of golf’s most improbable comebacks, Anthony Kim brought us back in time.

Nearly two decades ago, before everything came crashing down, Kim was on a rocketship to stardom. He ascended as high as sixth in the world, helped ignite U.S. teams to two Cup victories, rattled off a record 11 birdies in one round at Augusta National and won three times on the PGA Tour, all before turning 25 years old. He wasn’t just the next big thing; he was it.

That was the Anthony Kim we saw Sunday in Australia.

Kim’s 40-year-old body, nearly ravaged by over a decade’s worth of injuries, substance abuse and depression, appeared revived by the electricity of the moment. Kim began Sunday’s final round at LIV Golf Adelaide, the league’s flagship and most raucous event on the calendar, five shots back of groupmates Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau before firing a vintage 9-under 63 and powering his way to a dominant three-shot victory, his first since the 2010 Shell Houston Open.

Having fed off the crowd all day, Kim savored a few extra seconds as he backed off a 1-footer on the last hole to pump up the fans. Amid the cheers, he sank the putt, then leaned back to deliver what was one of several emphatic, leg-kicking fist-pumps on the afternoon. This one almost knocked him off balance.

“I’m too old to be reacting like that because I think I pulled something in my hip,” Kim said. “But I will say that that was all the lows that I went through in my life that I got to dig out of. Every putt that went in, I felt the struggle, and I was overcoming it. It was therapeutic out there to fight through it and come out on top.”

Life was good for that 25-year-old Kim, or so it seemed. Inside, Kim was spiraling out of control. By the time he withdrew midway through the 2012 Wells Fargo, destined for surgery on his left Achilles, Kim was already addicted to drugs and alcohol and contemplating suicide, something that he says persisted almost daily for nearly two decades. “I got so good at hiding it that I lost who I was,” Kim revealed last year. “It’s f---ing hard playing in majors making porta potty stops every few holes.” He disappeared into the wilderness after that, becoming golf’s version of the sasquatch for the next 12 years. Sightings were few and far between. Kim once showed at his alma mater Oklahoma’s fundraising tournament in 2016, only to bolt after 14 holes. There was another time shortly after that when Kim had new irons delivered to the Sooners’ home facility; he unwrapped them, then proceeded to beat several members of the Oklahoma’s national-championship team over nine holes. And yet, he was further away from a comeback than ever. Even as Kim met his now-wife, Emily, and welcomed his daughter, Bella, who turned 4 last December, more injuries and abuse persisted in waging war on his health.

Before Kim checked himself into rehab a few years ago, doctors had told Kim he potentially had two weeks to live.

Now, Kim is approaching three years sober.

“I wasn’t the best person,” Kim admitted. “But who I am today is a completely different person. With God, my family, my sobriety being the key things to my life, I can go as far as I want.”

When Greg Norman began courting Kim for a return to competition in early 2024, Kim’s game was still in shambles, though when Norman asked Kim if he thought he could do it, Kim nodded. “I still had that self-belief that I could get to the top, that I could win golf tournaments,” Kim recalled. That day, Norman responded, “I believe in you, too.”

Confidence was one thing; rediscovering his talent was another. In two years as a wild-card player, unattached to any team, Kim posted one top-25 finish in 24 starts and was relegated after last season. “The first year I was just trying not to shank the ball,” Kim said. But he flashed signs late last year, first at the Asian Tour’s PIF Saudi International, where he tied for fifth, and then at LIV’s Promotions event, where he medaled to regain his LIV card. When Patrick Reed opted not to resign with the 4Aces, the team scooped up Kim after his best career LIV finish, a T-22 showing last week at LIV’s opener in Riyadh.

“I think he’s only going to keep getting better,” said 4Aces captain Dustin Johnson after Kim’s signing.

But Kim almost didn’t make it to Australia. He had boarded the league’s charter from Saudi Arabia on Saturday night, only to be removed from his seat because of visa issues. He eventually received clearance but didn’t arrive at The Grange Golf Club until Tuesday, allotting him time for only one practice round. None of that deterred Kim, ranked No. 847 in the world, not even the challenge of chasing down former world Nos. 1 Rahm and DeChambeau and their combined four major championships.

“When I was in my 20s, I was never scared to play anybody,” Kim said. “I’m not scared to play anybody now. I know this is just one golf tournament, but I believe in myself. That will never change.”

With DeChambeau bogeying four of his first seven holes and Rahm stuck in neutral on his way to a two-birdie 71, that set the stage for Kim, who strutted ahead of the two behemoths for much of the round. Kim didn’t drop a single shot, then left everyone in his proverbial dust with five birdies in his last seven holes, a run sparked by a 17-foot birdie make at the rowdy par-3 12th, better known as the Watering Hole, that first tied Kim for the lead with Rahm.

Rahm called Kim’s final round one of the best and craziest he’s witnessed.

“In a weird way, as a competitor, I probably shouldn’t say this, but that was a joy to watch,” Rahm said. “To see that image on 18 of him hugging his wife and daughter, any man with a soul is going to have a soft spot for that. I was almost tearing up.”

Yes, as Kim’s ball remained at the bottom of the cup at No. 18, Kim dropped his putter and turned to a fast-approaching Bella before scooping her into his arms. Emily was right behind, and the three shared a long embrace, with Kim burying his face, already soaked from tears, into his wife’s right shoulder. Kim’s $4 million winner’s check nearly eclipsed his previous career LIV earnings ($4.6 million) and with LIV now receiving world-ranking points, he’s projected to climb back inside the top 200 in the world, but this was much more than that.

“Best moment of my life so far,” Kim said. “Obviously, when Bella was born, Emily and my life changed. But to be able to share this moment, even though Bella won’t understand it, one day she will, and for her to be able to run on the green and see that her dad isn’t a loser was one of the most special moments of my life.”

AFP via Getty Images

And the champagne shower that quickly followed? Well, it was actually an assortment of carbonated water. “We made sure,” Johnson told Kim before he was congratulated by a long line of peers.

“It’s an unbelievable story, the place he got to and how close he was to not being here,” Marc Leishman said. “I’m not talking about in Adelaide, I’m talking about not being on this planet.”

Added Lucas Herbert: “I cried.”

As Kim usually says on social media, sober is dope.

When Bella gets a little older, Kim will share with her this remarkable comeback story, how Daddy conquered unimaginable demons and rose from depths so low that most, if not everyone, had written Kim off.

“I’m going to try to leave a lot of the details out, but I will tell her that before she came into this world that I didn’t feel any purpose in my life,” Kim said. “Whether you have a lot of money, whether you have a lot of success in your life, you still can feel lonely and feel like the world is against you, and that’s in your own mind because I had a lot of people rooting for me. Obviously, you saw out there how many people were rooting for me.

“But I just want her to know that no matter how bad your day is, if you keep fighting, you never lose.”

He had another message for everyone else:

“Don’t f---ing quit,” Kim said. “That’s it. Don’t f---ing quit.”

That’s the AK we know.