Anthony Kim has revealed an alarming detail from his 12-year hiatus from professional golf when doctors told him he “may not have much time left”.
The American recalled this memory when asked if there was one low point during his absence from public life that caused him to turn things around during his first press conference since joining LIV Golf at the end of February.
After becoming one of the PGA Tour‘s most promising stars between 2008 and 2010, injuries derailed Kim’s career by 2012 which was the last time he’d played a professional golf tournament before playing LIV’s event in Jeddah on March 1.
Kim didn’t explain what drove him to the low point he recalls, but he said at Trump National Doral that he still thinks about this time and intends to focus on his golf with the continued support of his wife and child Bella.
“Not to get too far into it, but when doctors are telling you that you may not have much time left, that’s a pretty rude awakening,” he said on Thursday.
“I still think about it to this day when I’m out there and I get frustrated with my golf, you know, how far I’ve come and other people don’t need to know the journey, I’m going to share it and the people that find inspiration and strength from it, I hope it can influence them in a positive way.
“But yeah, I got to a point where I may not be here speaking to you guys.
“I have gone through some tough things in my life and I’m taking responsibility for those things, but with this platform, I’m hoping to help other people understand that life can throw a lot of s*** at you but you go through tough things and they make you tougher and you can make it through,” he added.
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“Fortunately, I’ve had some great support. the love from my daughter, my wife and my mum has been amazing and they’ve helped me through some tough situations and I look forward to talking about it more in my doc but for right now, I’m focused on my golf and helping others.”
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Anthony Kim: LIV Golf star to reveal more in documentary
A documentary about Kim’s life is due to be released soon which will no doubt add some detail to his virtually unknown story. In 2015, he told Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press that he’d been receiving payments from an insurance policy he had taken out five years earlier in case he got injured.
Before speaking to the press in Florida, LIV Golf released an interview with Kim and LIV broadcaster David Feherty in which he offered a peak behind the curtain at his return to professional golf and what he had been through since leaving the game after withdrawing from the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship.
“At the time of that event, my life was already going downhill,” he said looking back on the Wells Fargo. “I was making poor decisions off the golf course and obviously on, missing that many cuts.
“But, I wasn’t thinking about golf at that moment, I wasn’t thinking about golf that year when I was playing and once I realised after my surgery that it was possible that I don’t play again, I was completely OK with that.
“I actually had a Saturday one weekend a few weekends after I got done playing and I had probably three or four rooms full of golf stuff, hats, gloves, balls shoes, clubs. I texted a hundred people and just come. Whoever gets here fast on Saturday gets to keep it all, so let’s just say it looked like a garage sale.”
In this interview, Kim said he hadn’t played golf in his absence and only started playing again three months ago. After undergoing surgeries to his shoulder, hand and spine, he also said he was involved with “bad people” and “scam artists” and that “you don’t realise the snakes that are living under your roof.”
Speaking ahead of his latest LIV appearance this week, Kim has now revealed he broke his ankle eight months ago which plunged any type of future in the game into doubt. Luckily this setback didn’t extend his absence from the game he admits he was completely shut out from.
Kim told the press that he only recently discovered, courtesy of fellow LIV Golfer Dustin Johnson, that Brooks Kopeka won back-to-back majors in 2018. Kim also said he “heard” that Tiger Woods won the Masters in 2019 but he wasn’t focused on golf at that time and “didn’t care if somebody won a golf tournament.”
Further signifying how far removed he was from the sport, Kim also revealed that he recently learned you can move loose impediments from bunkers and that the rules of golf allow you to take practice swings in hazards.
Kim, now 38 years old and still with the memories of winning three times on the PGA Tour, is playing as a wildcard in the LIV Golf League. If he performs well enough this season, he could earn a spot on a team for LIV Golf’s 2025 season.
Each LIV Golf team has a captain and when Kim jokingly thought of a team name if he was ever in a position to choose one of his own: “Drunk by the turn.”
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