Anthony Kim is reportedly eyeing a comeback.
According to Golf.com’s Dylan Dethier, the 38-year-old Kim has recently been in separate discussions with the PGA Tour and LIV Golf about a possible return to competitive golf for the first time in over a decade.
Dethier’s sources said Kim was “confident in his game” as he’s been practicing and working out more in preparation for a comeback. GolfChannel.com has learned that Kim spends much of his time at Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club, an exclusive club where Kim is mostly left alone, but could not confirm that a comeback was imminent.
The PGA Tour and LIV Golf each declined to comment for Golf.com’s story.
Kim hasn’t played in a world-ranked event – and has largely been out of the public eye – since withdrawing from the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship. Kim revealed to the Associated Press in a 2015 interview, his last on-record, that he took out an insurance policy in 2010. (Golf.com estimates that policy is now worth $10 million.) He added in that interview, “I miss the competition a little bit,” and said that, despite rumors, the insurance policy was not the hang-up in him returning to the Tour.
Kim has popped up here and there since he last played on Tour. Most sightings have been seen-in-the-wild-type stuff. But there’s also the time he showed up to the University of Oklahoma’s Sooner Open alumni event in 2016 – and then bolted after 14 holes. Another time, about eight years ago, he shipped some new clubs to the Sooners’ facility, unboxed them and then proceeded to beat several current Oklahoma players over nine holes at Jimmie Austin Golf Club.
For those who have seen Kim play golf in recent years, there is a shared belief that Kim could be competitive if he were to return. When he was on Tour, Kim, who turned pro in 2006 and battled multiple injuries over the next six years, had three Tour wins but just three top-10s in 15 major starts. His best major finish, a third at the 2010 Masters, came on the heels of a closing 65. He made the 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup team and went 2-1-1, but he was left off the next team, in 2010. He collected just over $12 million in on-course earnings on Tour.
It’s understood that Kim would have some sort of medical extension he could tap into. If he signed with LIV, Golf.com says he would likely make his debut later in the season, which begins next week, and play team-less as a wild card.
