He has been one of golf’s greatest mysteries: the first American to achieve a feat on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods who vanished from the professional game without a trace.
Twelve years on, social media can relax: the riddle that is Anthony Kim has been solved.
Of all the signings Greg Norman’s LIV Golf has made in the last two years as it upends the men’s professional game, none have bought as much intrigue as Kim, who will make his return to the sport in Saudi Arabia this week.
The former world No.6 hasn’t just been off the scene for a while, he hasn’t played a top-level tournament since 2012. On that occasion, he withdrew through injury, went off to have surgery on an Achilles tendon … and just never returned.
Tournament organisers have tried to whip up hype about their events by attempting to lure Kim back into the spotlight. There were murmurings of his imminent return, sightings here and there.
But he had never teed it up, reportedly not wanting to risk a $15 million insurance payout for a career-ending injury.
Yet when Norman’s Saudi dollars are around, well, money is no object.
It’s not that Kim isn’t blessed with ability: he was the first American under 25 to win on the PGA Tour twice in a season since Woods when he achieved the feat in 2008 and then went on to finish third in the 2010 Masters.
