LIV Golf's Anthony Kim Details Just How Removed He Was From the Game

DORAL, Fla. — Anthony Kim has yet to go into specifics, but he clearly endured some troubled times amid a 12-year layoff from professional golf in which he all but went underground.

Without making light of his issues, which included a doctor once telling him he might not “have much time left,” Kim said Thursday that he was quite removed from golf.

For example, he was vaguely aware that Tiger Woods won the 2019 Masters.

He only learned Wednesday that Brooks Koepka had won the U.S. Open (2017-18) and PGA Championship (2018-19) in consecutive years.

And it wasn’t until Thursday morning that he learned that the Rules of Golf have been seen a change that now allows you to remove loose impediments in a bunker.

“So I'm learning as I go,” Kim said at Doral, where he will play in the LIV Golf Miami event starting Friday. “And as important as golf is and as important as it is to win and to be in contention, I just want to be in the right mental place. Life is too short to be super upset.

“I would get upset if I played a bad round of golf for two weeks, and it would bother me, eat at me. Now whether I play good or play bad, and obviously I scored poorly in my first few events, after the round, I get to see my daughter or go to the pool with her. I could care less what I shot. I know that the next day, I'm going to lace up any shoes or not lace up my shoes and go try my best again.”

Kim, 38, conducted his first news conference since returning to golf last month at the LIV Golf Jeddah event, where he finished last by 11 shots. He played the following week in Hong Kong, missed the cut a week later at an International Series event, and is now making his domestic debut near Miami.

The circumstances by which he left golf following the first round of the Wells Fargo Championship in 2012, the rare sightings, the rumors about returns and now coming back have led to considerable intrigue and curiosity.

LIV Golf released on Tuesday an interview with broadcaster David Feherty in which Kim discussed some of the personal struggles he’s endured. As he did in that interview and again on Thursday, Kim said he is doing a documentary where it appears he will divulge more details.

Kim, who won three times on the PGA Tour and starred on the 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup team, disclosed that he’s really not been playing golf for very long. Greg Norman, LIV’s commissioner, approached him about a return approximately three months ago and he didn’t really ramp up his prep for his first event in Jeddah until three weeks prior.

He wasn’t specific, but over the past 12 years, Kim said he rarely played recreational golf and only did so because his wife, Emily, wanted to take up the game.

“I had a property out at a golf club that I didn't go to for maybe three or four years, and I went and visited because my mom wanted to go,” Kim said. “So we went, had lunch. I hit 30 balls. Somehow it ended up on the Internet, and then I was returning to golf.

“I actually, before I went to Saudi, played golf with the guy that I borrowed his clubs that time. It's interesting, I'm hearing all these rumors that I played golf and was playing in big money games, and obviously people have a large imagination when they are sitting in their basement.”

Kim again hinted at various issues in his life over the past 12 years. There have been seven surgeries, he said. A doctor him his life was in danger. “There are a lot of reasons I shouldn’t be here right now.”

“I think once my documentary comes out, people will understand how low of a point it got, and it will make more sense,” he said. “But I wasn't in a place to play golf. And a couple months ago, I actually broke my foot. I broke my ankle eight or nine months ago, and so I was in a cast for four months.

“Obviously after that, golf was out of the picture. So I played a few rounds with my wife. The day before I broke my ankle, I played my first full round of golf. Then the next day I went out on hole 6 (at a course where he lives in Oklahoma City), I tried to jump a creek and being 38 years old, I didn't make it and wound up breaking my ankle. I thought it was out of the picture.

“A couple months ago, maybe four months ago, five months ago, I got a call that LIV was interested and also got a call from the PGA Tour that they were interested.”

Kim disclosed that LIV first approached him two years ago when the league launched as an invitational series but that was not the right time.

“I wasn't in the place to play golf, mentally, emotionally, physically, any of that,” he said.

“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. I still think about it to this day when I'm out there and I get frustrated with my golf, 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, it was—I got to a point where, you know, I may not be here speaking to you guys.”

Kim added: “I talked to people I trust, and people were concerned about what I was doing and the place I was in. You know, there's not enough time to get into detail about all the things right now.

“But I got professional help. I think that I didn't deal with a lot of the trauma and whatever came from my life, and I buried it because I didn't want to show anybody weakness, right. And I thought by showing vulnerability, that was weakness, and I've come to a point in my life where I don't care if somebody thinks that about me or not.

“My daughter (Bella) is all I care about, and I know it almost sounds corny for me to say but as long as she's proud of me, I'm a happy man.”

As for golf, Kim said he is getting used to some of the new technology. For example, he’s trying to figure out how Trackman can help him.

“The game has changed so much,” he said. “I thought that when I first got on to the Tour with titanium drivers. But now it's come to a point where you don't have to hit a ball in the center and you can get the same amount of yardage and accuracy as somebody who does hit it in the center. Obviously not being a huge guy, my advantage was being able to hit the ball in the middle of the face and be in the fairway.

“But now, everyone's hitting it long. Everyone is hitting it semi-straight. So it ends up becoming a bomber's putting contest. And I'm not the longest guy out there, but using the right technology, I'm hitting it a little bit further, and hopefully I'll make a couple putts this week.”