In January 2010, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs stepped before a crowded audience and announced the company’s latest world-changing invention: The iPad.
Three months later, the world’s first iPad users booted up their devices, connected to the internet, and were greeted with a golf headline: Anthony Kim had just won the Houston Open. Did those same tech diehards go on Instagram to celebrate the news? Nope. The social media giant was still six months from creation.
That’s how long it has been between Anthony Kim’s last victory and his latest one, which arrived after 16 long years early Sunday morning at LIV Australia. The 40-year-old pro shocked the golf world by winning by three shots at Royal Adelaide, completing a comeback that seemed impossible by optimistic standards just a few months earlier.
Kim won on Sunday after shooting a flawless, nine-under, bogey-free final round that featured four straight birdies — and five in six holes — to push several shots free of a chasing group that included major winners Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau. Kim’s fist pumps reached a fever-pitch with an emotional scene on the 18th hole, where some of the 38,500 Australian fans in attendance stormed up the 18th fairway behind him to capture the scene on the green. After Kim’s tap-in par putt fell to clinch the tournament at 23 under par, his teammates showered him in “fizzy water,” (according to lead LIV broadcaster Arlo White), and Kim shared an emotional embrace with his wife and young daughter.
“I don’t really know what to say right now,” Kim said through tears. “It’s a bit overwhelming, but I’m never not gonna fight for my family. God gave me a talent, I was able to produce some good golf today. I knew it was coming. Nobody else had to believe in me but me.”
The full extent of Kim’s comeback from the golfing depths remains something of a mystery, but those watching early on Sunday morning in the United States had all the context they needed. Kim returned from more than a decade as golf’s disappeared superstar played poorly enough to get relegated from LIV Golf, and now, less than two years later, was back in the winner’s circle in arguably the league’s biggest event.
“I don’t really know how to put into words,” Kim said. “I knew this was going to happen, but for it to actually happen is pretty insane.”
Kim disappeared from pro golf for more than a decade following the highs of the early 2010s, and his whereabouts remained one of the most publicized stories in the sport through to the mid 2020s. In the year since returning to the sport to compete on LIV Golf, Kim has addressed his struggles with addiction and the depths of his recovery in a series of social media posts and interviews with LIV’s official social media channels. In six days, on February 20th, he will celebrate three years sober.
“For anybody that’s struggling right now, you can get through anything,” Kim said Sunday.
With the victory, Kim won $4 million and can move as high as 200th in the Official World Golf Ranking.
“I just want to thank all of the people who have supported me,” Kim said. “Including you, when I was not playing well, and I was on the verge of never coming back to LIV, always supported me. Thank you to everyone who’s been in my corner, so I’m going to keep doing it.”
