The post GOLF’s Subpar: The legend of Anthony Kim at Oklahoma appeared first on Golf.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: The legend of Anthony Kim at Oklahoma appeared first on Golf.

Chris Gotterup joined GOLF’s Subpar Podcast and talked about one of his college program’s most famous players, Anthony Kim.

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The post GOLF’s Subpar: The legend of Anthony Kim at Oklahoma appeared first on Golf.

The post Brian Harman Interview: Playing with Anthony Kim at the Walker Cup, his mindset competing against golf’s longest hitters appeared first on Golf.

The post Brian Harman Interview: Playing with Anthony Kim at the Walker Cup, his mindset competing against golf’s longest hitters appeared first on Golf.

On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar, two-time PGA Tour winner Brian Harman joins former PGA Tour pro Colt Knost and jicky jack legend Drew Stoltz for an exclusive interview. The former Georgia Bulldog talks playing Augusta National during college, competing alongside Anthony Kim at the 2005 Walker Cup, and his mindset going head to head with golf’s longest hitters.

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The post Why Brian Harman had to calm down Anthony Kim at the Walker Cup appeared first on Golf.

The post Why Brian Harman had to calm down Anthony Kim at the Walker Cup appeared first on Golf.

Brian Harman doesn’t hesitate when he’s asked about his former Walker Cup partner, Anthony Kim, and just how legendary Kim’s game was years ago. He doesn’t mince words, either.

“If he’s not the best, he’s top-three most talented, incredible, just top-to-bottom golfer, ever,” Harman said.

Harman was the guest on this week’s GOLF Subpar Podcast, and he sat down with hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz to talk about how he got into the game, Walker Cup matches, competing against the bombers on Tour and more.

Harman played on the 2005 and 2009 Walker Cup teams, and in 2005 he was paired with Kim for both foursomes (alternate shot) matches. Of course, Harman was asked about his experience playing with Kim, who rose to stardom but has morphed into somewhat of a mythical figure the last several years.

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“It’s incredible what he could do,” Harman said. “He could hit it as far as anyone when he wanted to. His short game was just out of this world, and his iron shots — he choked down this far on an iron, and just mashed it. Every one was right out of the barrel. … He could do whatever he wanted to.”

Harman said at the 2005 Walker Cup he was shocked that he actually had to settle Kim’s nerves before their matches.

“We get out there the first day, and he’s like super nervous, and I’m like, I can’t believe I have to clam this guy down,” Harman said. “I’m like, ‘Anthony, you are so much better than anyone here. All you have to do is just keep breathing and we are going to wax these guys.'”

They halved that opening foursomes match on Saturday but Kim cruised in singles that afternoon, winning 6 and 5. Harman and Kim teamed up again on Sunday morning and won their foursomes match 4 and 2, and the U.S. won the showdown 12.5-11.5.

Knost also sided with Harman, adding Kim is the best he’s ever played with.

“I’m not kidding you,” he said, “day in, day out, it was just a joke.”

You can listen to the entire Subpar episode below.

The post Why Brian Harman had to calm down Anthony Kim at the Walker Cup appeared first on Golf.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: Brian Harman talks playing with Anthony Kim appeared first on Golf.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: Brian Harman talks playing with Anthony Kim appeared first on Golf.

Subpar’s Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz are joined by two-time PGA Tour winner Brian Harman who talks what it’s like playing with Anthony Kim and their time as teammates at the 2005 Walker Cup.

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The post Why Anthony Kim is a Masters contender’s role model appeared first on Golf.

The post Why Anthony Kim is a Masters contender’s role model appeared first on Golf.

There were the usual suspects this week at the Masters. Tiger Woods, no doubt. Will Zalatoris could describe in detail on Friday, some 16 years after the fact, where he was — an Italian restaurant in the Bay Area — when Woods chipped in from behind the 16th green at Augusta National. Phil Mickelson is a favorite. Countless players said they sought the counsel of the three-time green jacket winner. The same goes for Fred Couples, the 1992 champ. 

All good golf heroes, no doubt. But Brian Harman’s is “kind of a throwback.”

AK. 

“A guy I looked up to and playing a bunch with was Anthony Kim,” said Harman, who was one shot out of the lead entering Saturday’s third round. “I remember he came around Augusta, and he made like 10 or 11 birdies one day out here. 

“I used to always love the way that he played the game. He’s bold and took on — took chances.”

Nevermind the fact that Kim is 35 — and Harman is 34. Ignore that Kim mysteriously hasn’t played in a PGA Tour event since 2012, when he withdrew from three straight tournaments. There have been sightings through the years — as GOLF’s Dylan Dethier described in detail last year — but no golf. 

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No matter. Harman remembers AK. The three Tour victories. The brashness and swagger. The belt buckle. And, as Harman said, that second round in 2009, where Kim shot a seven-under 65 — with an Augusta-record 11 birdies. (He also made two bogeys and a double.) 

“I’m not as good as he was, but I’d like to think that I try to harness some of that energy sometimes,” Harman said Friday. 

Through two rounds, he played the part. Harman opened with a three-under 69, then followed it up with another after birdieing his last two holes. On Saturday, Harman was in the second-to-last tee time. 

Of course, the follow-up to a memorable player is a memorable memory. 

Harman’s was another chance-taker, to say it nicely. 

“I think watching Phil win his first one is probably my fondest memory being a left-handed guy and watch him get that monkey off his back so to speak,” Harman said of Mickelson’s victory in 2004. “I watched him play every hole that day. They had it on TV all day long, and I remember watching every shot. And he played beautifully, and he just gives himself a chance on the last hole, wins and almost jumped in there after he made that putt.”  

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The post Latest Anthony Kim sighting raises more questions than answers appeared first on Golf.

The post Latest Anthony Kim sighting raises more questions than answers appeared first on Golf.

Anthony Kim showed up again on Friday.

No, he didn’t give an interview nor did he swing a golf club nor did he address the juicy rumors of the eight-figure insurance policy allegedly keeping him from the game. Instead, we got a glimpse of him in the manner we’ve recently grown accustomed: A picture on Instagram, a vague caption, no context, no answered questions. We supply the rest.

Friday’s appearance came via Adam Schriber, Kim’s longtime coach, who posted a photo of the two in front of the Dallas skyline with the caption “/021 is going to be special.” (We’re assuming that was supposed to read “2021,” unless this is some secret AK code.) Kim’s left arm is full-sleeve tatted now. He’s maintained his slim physique. And his “Boomer Sooner” t-shirt suggests ongoing support for his alma mater.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Anthony Kim in recent years. There was the shot of Kim holding a White Claw at an outdoor gathering this summer. There was a chance run-in with a golf fan at a coffee shop in West Hollywood, Calif. last year. There was the mysterious swing video, date and time unknown, that sent fans into a tizzy. You get the idea.

With each Bigfoot-like sighting, Kim’s myth has grown. How can a celebrity actually disappear in 2020? What has he been doing? Why, exactly, did he disappear from the PGA Tour? Kim has become a cult hero; legends from his short career are told and retold with increasing admiration and exaggeration.

Kim’s last three PGA Tour starts came in 2012; all three were WDs with injury. In the years that followed it seemed plausible that Kim would emerge from the shadows, rejuvenated, for some sort of magical comeback. As the calendar flips to 2021, we’re approaching a decade since he was a relevant Tour pro — any thought of a Tour comeback seems more like wishful thinking with every passing year.

It has also become less clear what we want from Anthony Kim. What would a desirable outcome be for the now 35-year-old? What would be a realistic outcome? Would we like it if he returned to the PGA Tour, made a few spot starts and battled to try and regain some status? What if he came back and wasn’t good enough?

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In many ways the greater golf world’s feelings about Kim mirror our feelings for several other modern golf legends in the coming year. Nostalgia and mystique are a powerful combination. We know Annika Sorenstam, who walked away from the top of the game at age 37, won’t suddenly wind back the clock to play a full LPGA Tour schedule in 2021 — but we’d love to see her tee it up at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open. We know Michelle Wie West will never have the career we projected for her at age 14, but it would be terrific to see her in contention next season. We’re under no pretenses that Jordan Spieth will contend for the Grand Slam this year, like he did in 2015, but we’re desperate to see him regain some shred of his winning form.

As it turns out, the Schriber photo wasn’t the only Kim sighting of the week. A photo of Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops at a bar accidentally captured Kim standing alongside him. Stoops was in Dallas to watch the Sooners claim a Cotton Bowl victory on Wednesday night and Kim appeared to join him to celebrate the team’s 55-20 drubbing of the Florida Gators.

Time only moves in one direction. We know that. Anthony Kim was a compelling, talented Tour pro who, like many great artists, wasn’t fully appreciated in his time. No matter what the future holds, the brash, shot-of-life 25-year-old isn’t coming back. We should probably be grateful that’s the case; in golf you can die the hero or live long enough to pick up a hefty pro-am schedule and start hawking random products on Instagram.

In golf, careers are long and feature contradictory chapters. Look no further than the most intriguing career of all, which delivered an impossible twist when Tiger Woods completed a return from the depths to win the 2019 Masters. But winning major championships was exactly what Woods always wanted. What Kim wanted was far less obvious.

If there is another chapter in Anthony Kim’s public story, we should hope it’s fulfilling, and interesting, and something we might not expect. Maybe 2021 will hold more answers. Until then we’ll cling to memories and Instagram photos — and wonder what might have been.

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The post Tour pro details the way controversy helped fuel Anthony Kim’s ‘insane talent’ appeared first on Golf.

The post Tour pro details the way controversy helped fuel Anthony Kim’s ‘insane talent’ appeared first on Golf.

With a pro career that has spanned over 20 years, Sean O’Hair has been up-close-and-personal with some of the game’s greatest players, including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els.

But there is one person O’Hair played alongside who O’Hair feels never reached his seemingly limitless potential: Anthony Kim.

In an appearance on this week’s episode of Subpar, O’Hair told hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz that Kim was not only an incredible talent, he also had a knack for rising to the occasion when he needed to.

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“AK had swag, man,” O’Hair says. “He was another guy, I think he was a little misunderstood. Not that I was boys with him, there were things that he would do that I didn’t necessarily appreciate, but I think he was misunderstood as a person. I think he’s one of those complicated cats that had insane talent. Insane talent. In my opinion, there was not a doubt he was going to be a Hall of Famer. And I don’t know exactly what happened there, but it’s unfortunate that he’s not playing because I think golf would have benefited from Anthony Kim playing golf.”

O’Hair went on to discuss the 2009 Presidents Cup team that he and Kim were a part of.

“I think he was the best player of that Presidents Cup team in ’09, for sure,” O’Hair says. “And he was one of those guys, he loves that controversy, and he just feeds off it. He would go put his headphones on and sit by himself on the couch and be anti-social, and certain people on the team would say certain things, and I know guys on the International team were talking s—. And he’d go out there and whoop ’em. I mean, he would give ’em a shellacking.”

The U.S. won that 2009 Presidents Cup 19.5 to 14.5, and Kim went 3-1-1 — including a 5 and 3 singles victory over Robert Allenby.

You can listen to O’Hair’s full Subpar interview below.

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The post GOLF’s Subpar: Sean O’Hair on playing with Anthony Kim and why he embraced controversy appeared first on Golf.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: Sean O’Hair on playing with Anthony Kim and why he embraced controversy appeared first on Golf.

Subpar’s Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz are joined by 4-time PGA Tour winner Sean O’Hair who explains what it was like playing with Anthony Kim, why AK seemed to embrace controversy, and why the Tour would be better off with him still active.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: Sean O’Hair on playing with Anthony Kim and why he embraced controversy appeared first on Golf.

The post Sean O’Hair Interview: Battling Tiger Woods at Bay Hill, Michael Jordan’s impact at the 2009 Presidents Cup appeared first on Golf.

The post Sean O’Hair Interview: Battling Tiger Woods at Bay Hill, Michael Jordan’s impact at the 2009 Presidents Cup appeared first on Golf.

On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar, 4-time PGA Tour winner Sean O’Hair joins former PGA Tour pro Colt Knost and his close friend and on course rival Drew Stoltz for an exclusive, in-studio interview. The 2005 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year talks what it was like battling Tiger Woods at Bay Hill, how Michael Jordan impacted the 2009 Presidents Cup team as an assistant coach, and his experiences playing with Anthony Kim over the years.

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The post Backspin: Looking back at a classic Tiger Woods Nike commercial (with a special cameo!) appeared first on Golf.

The post Backspin: Looking back at a classic Tiger Woods Nike commercial (with a special cameo!) appeared first on Golf.

After Tiger Woods won the 2008 U.S. Open – essentially on one leg – he took a long break from professional golf to recover physically. This 2009 Nike Golf commercial depicts what the PGA Tour looked like in his absence, and then what it looked like during his return.

Tiger has been a part of some legendary commercials, but this one is special due to a few surprise cameos. I won’t ruin who the big name is before you watch the video, though, in case it’s your first time watching.

Being that this commercial is such a classic, we figured it was perfect for our new Backspin series, where equipment editors Jonathan Wall and Andrew Tursky (that’s me) watch old golf videos for the first time in years and provide our thoughts. If you missed them, we’ve already checked out the old Alien Wedge and Hammer X infomercials.

Enjoy our Backspin version of the classic Nike Golf commercial above, and stay tuned for more nostalgic videos next week!

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