Anthony

Kim

Kim was born in June 1985 in Los Angeles to Korean parents, Paul and Miryoung.

As a sophomore at La Quinta High, his family had moved him into a home near the Stadium Course at PGA West and while there, he won Southern California’s high school championship.

Kim accepted a scholarship to the University of Oklahoma where he met his future caddie, Brodie Flanders, and in 2005 he was a member of the USA’s Walker Cup-winning team, achieving a personal haul of 2½ points in the victory over Great Britain & Ireland.

He turned professional in 2006 and made his PGA Tour debut at the Valero Texas Open after receiving a sponsor’s exemption.

It was an exceptional way to launch his pro career, finishing T2 at LaCantera Golf Club, along with future US Open winner Justin Rose and Dean Wilson, earning prize money of $298,667 for his efforts.

Through finishing T13 at the end of season Q-School, Kim earned his PGA Tour card for 2007.

In his rookie year on Tour he played 26 events, making the cut 20 times and achieved a season best T3 at April’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

He also booked a place at the US Open via the Columbus, Ohio sectional qualifiers.

Tackling his first Major with confidence, he made the cut at Oakmont Country Club and during the final round only Kim (67 on a par-70) and eventual winner Angel Cabrera (69) recorded sub-par scores.

That late show helped him rocket up the leaderboard from T57 to finish a respectable T20.

Records tumbled as Kim claimed his first PGA Tour win a month before his 23rd birthday at the 2008 Wachovia Championship, now known as the Wells Fargo.

After carding a 3-under-par 69 final round at Quail Hollow Club, Kim ended the tournament a full five strokes ahead of his nearest challenger Ben Curtis.

His overall score of 16-under-par 272 beat the previous tournament record set by Tiger Woods by three strokes and earned Kim a huge seven-figure paycheck of $1,152,000.

At this stage in his career Kim was already wearing a giant diamond-studded belt buckle reading ‘AK’ which had become an essential part of his apparel.

He had stepped up to the first tee on the Sunday holding a four-shot lead and by the time he drained a par putt at the last hole he was five strokes ahead of the field.

“I knew my life was changing on the 18th green when I was lining that putt up,” Kim said.

“It was just so special. I’ll never forget that feeling.

“All these emotions were starting to run through, and I realized what I had done, and all the hard work had paid off.”

A second win of the season at the 2008 AT&T National in June moved Kim up to 14th place on the official world golf ranking.

This time it was a victory crafted through grit and determination as he was trailing by three shots as play moved to the final round at Congressional Golf Club.

Kim landed five birdies including two around the turn to close the day with a 5-under-par 65 and an overall 12-under 268, beating runner-up Freddie Jacobsen by two.

His partner on the final round was Dean Wilson who finished T3 and he had a one-word assessment of Kim’s game having witnessed it first-hand.

“Awesome,” said Wilson.

“He has all the tools. Very confident, very aggressive the way he plays.

“He’s always shooting at the pins, and it’s pretty good.”

It was a significant win in more ways than one as it moved Kim up to sixth spot in the standings for automatic Ryder Cup selection.

A standout moment of the United States’ 2008 Ryder Cup victory over Europe was the opening singles match on the Sunday, which pitted 23-year-old Kim against Spanish star and future LIV Golf captain, Sergio Garcia.

Kim was the youngest player among the two teams at Valhalla while Garcia, then 28, was on his way to becoming the Ryder Cup’s most prolific player – as of 2023 he had won more career points than any other golfer with 28½.

Kim didn’t just win, he destroyed Garcia 5&4, with five birdies and an eagle in just 14 holes and the US went on to blow Europe away 16½ to 11½ to win the cup for the first time since 1999.

US captain Paul Azinger remembers Kim’s contribution with fondness.

“He was our off-the-course team leader,” Azinger told Gary Van Sickle at Golf.com.

“He wanted Sergio all week. I don’t think he realized that we couldn’t just match them up when we got there.

In the Ryder Cup the captains only have a say on what order their players will appear in the Sunday singles, without any conferring, creating a blind draw.

By sheer chance, Kim was matched with Garcia to open the day’s play and he ran riot, executing an inspirational victory.

“That was one of the classic moments in Ryder Cup history,” Azinger said.

“After he won that match, I gave AK a big hug on the green.”

A week after his Ryder Cup exploits, Kim finished T3 at THE TOUR Championship which boosted him from 10th in the official world golf ranking up to his career best 6th place.

Financially it was his most successful season on the PGA Tour, as he made the cut in 19 out of 22 events played and won twice to amass prize money of $4,656,265.

Kim was to enjoy another team outing for the US at the 2009 Presidents Cup at Harding Park Golf Club, San Francisco, where he contributed three points to the 19½-14½ win over the International line-up.

Kim had already enjoyed a taste of Masters fame after shooting a record eleven birdies in the second round at Augusta National in 2009.

Playing alongside Rory McIlroy and Ryo Ishikawa he shot a seven-under-par 65 and his 11-birdie haul in one round still stands as a Masters record.

The week before the 2010 Masters Kim locked in his third PGA Tour win at the Houston Open, beating Vaughn Taylor on the first sudden death playoff hole.

Despite bleak forecasts and gathering clouds promising April showers, the weather held on the opening day of the Masters and Kim’s return of a four-under-par 68 put him in overnight contention at T7.

He followed that up with a 70 on the Friday which advanced him to T3 at 6-under heading into the weekend, two strokes behind joint leaders Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood.

Saturday was disappointing and a 73 saw Kim drop to T9 at 5-under while Lee Westwood hit the front alone at 12-under.

That proved costly for Kim as on the Sunday there was no stopping him.

A swashbuckling charge saw Kim shoot the joint best round of the day, bagging a 65 after a crowd-pleasing run over four holes in which he gained five strokes.

As he approached the 13th, he was 7-under for the day, and after sinking a birdie there he repeated the feat on 14 then dug out an eagle on 15 before draining another birdie putt on 16.

It was sensational golf that put him just one shot off the lead, but by the end of the day he had to settle for a third-place finish at 12-under for the tournament, just a stroke adrift of runner-up Lee Westwood and four behind champion Phil Mickelson. In his 15 career Major starts, that proved to be his best performance.

Kim was a late call-up to the 2011 British Open in July as a replacement for Tim Clark who was sidelined with an elbow injury.

It was a slow burn of a tournament for Kim who was two-over after carding a 72 in the first round at Royal St George’s, but he hauled himself back to even with a 68 on the Friday.

During a wet and windy Saturday Kim fared better than most, holding par to move up the leaderboard to T7 and matched that again in Sunday’s final round, leaving him even in T5 for the tournament.

The golfing world wasn’t to know at the time but that was to be Kim’s last finish in a Major as he failed to make the cut in August’s PGA Championship. 

The first half of 2012 saw Kim enter 10 events on the PGA Tour, but he only made the cut twice.

He missed the cut in four tournaments, was disqualified from February’s Northern Trust Open for signing an incorrect scorecard and withdrew from each of his last three events across April and May.

It was then revealed in late June that Kim had needed surgery on his left Achilles after rupturing a tendon while fitness training.

That injury was expected to keep him away from the greens for between nine to 12 months, but as golf’s seasonal cycle ground on, Kim’s absence stretched into years.

By the time Kim had stopped playing in 2012 he had competed in 122 PGA Tour events with three tournament wins and 17 top-5 finishes, earning $12,206,409 in prize money along the way.

In an interview with David Feherty for LIV in April 2024, Kim explained that the Achilles injury was just the first of several problems that had surfaced over the years.

“I had multiple, multiple surgeries in a few years and my body is still not what it used to be.

“I’ve had multiple shoulder surgeries, hand surgery, spinal fusion. I had a lot of injuries and a lot of surgery.”

He went one stage further speaking on Fairway To Heaven, LIV Golf’s official podcast in July 2024, about the toll of trying to live up to everybody’s expectations, not least his own.

“I think there was a combination of pressure I put on myself, to take care of my mom,” he said.

“She worked her whole life from when she was a little girl to the time I turned professional and I had always promised her… that I was going to support her and retire her. So, I put a lot of pressure on myself to do that.

“I didn’t necessarily have the kind of a life that a lot of the other guys that play professional golf had.

“I definitely had some obstacles in my way and probably some mental health issues and I didn’t know how to deal with those, so I didn’t have time to enjoy the game.”

The result was some life choices that had a serious impact on his health.

“Through mistakes of my own I ended up in the situation I was,” he said.

“Two years ago, I didn’t have the outlook I do now because the doctors were telling me I didn’t have much time left.

“I know I keep dancing around that topic, it’s because it’s a longer conversation than just an answer, but you realize how grateful you should be for every day and that all you can do is try.

“So as long as I’m putting good effort, my max effort, with a good attitude, I’m happy with how the day went.”

Twelve years after last playing professional golf, Kim announced he would be taking part as a wildcard on the 2024 LIV Golf League, starting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

He had discussed his three options available with wife Emily: To sign for LIV, to return to the PGA Tour or to forget about golf completely.

“The PGA tour was unbelievable for a number of reasons in my life,” he said.

“I got to retire my mom, that was my main goal playing golf, so I got to do that.

“It came back to one simple question, ‘how was my family going to be able to be a part of this?’

“After a few conversations with LIV and with the PGA Tour, I was leaning towards not playing again.

“But my wife was like: ‘Who’s ever going to get this opportunity again, you can do something that nobody else has done if you accomplish something big with your comeback, so do it for your daughter.’

“That’s all I needed to hear.”

It became a season of discovery for Kim whose finishes showed steady improvement through 2024, as he looked to recapture the numbers of his earlier career.

A lot has changed in the world of golf over the 12 years he was away, so half of the battle has been trying to keep up with the rapid evolution of golf equipment and technology since he last swung a club professionally.

“I was playing an International Series event in Macau [in March 2024] with some of the guys from the 4Aces,” he said.

“They noticed that my ball was floating, and they asked me what ball I was playing.

“I told them the same one from when I left, and they told me they [Titleist] had switched the colors of the balls.

“So, I was actually playing an opposite ball for the first four weeks of playing golf, not knowing that in 2020 Titleist changed the Pro X to the Pro V and so I immediately gained 15 yards as soon as I switched balls the next week.

“I’m definitely lagging on technology!”