Anthony Kim’s LIV Adelaide win came with a universal message
Jon Rahm never knew when lightning would strike. He just knew it would take time.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if this season he’s the one to lift the trophy at the end of the week,” said Rahm on Saturday after the third round of LIV Golf Adelaide.
Twenty-four hours later, Anthony Kim proved Rahm prophetic by running down him and Bryson DeChambeau on Sunday to capture his first win since the 2010 Shell Houston Open.
Kim’s story is well written.
Once ranked 6th in the world, Kim left the Quail Hollow Club in 2012 and disappeared from the public eye. Once a rising star, Kim left professional golf to deal with several injuries he suffered while on the PGA Tour – injuries he thought had ended his professional career. He suffered from alcohol and drug addiction. Kim spoke of the “trauma” she faced and believes it is a small miracle that she is still alive. He said the premature birth of his daughter, Isabella, who is now four years old, made him realize that he needed to get his life together. LIV Golf gave him the opportunity to return to the top level. Kim has struggled in his first two seasons on the Saudi-backed circuit and needs to return to the league with LIV Promotions.
All that. Everything that has happened since Anthony Kim that Anthony Kim came back with a flood as he poured in putt after putt to beat two of the best players in the world.
“I will say that it is all the problems that I have gone through in my life that I have to get rid of,” said Kim. “Everything that came in, I could feel the struggle, and I would overcome it. It was a healing process when I fought it and came out on top.”
LIV’s unlikely victory by Anthony Kim: How did it happen – and what does it mean?
By:
James Colgan, Sean Zak, Dylan Dethier
By the time the dust settled at The Grange, Kim had scored a three-shot victory, making everyone think about the time. Almost 16 years, how much time changes things, and how unlikely was Anthony Kim’s road back to the winner’s circle of any kind.
“He was a gun. He was playing Ryder Cups, winning all the time, I’d say. I’m not sure how many times he won. Three times. He almost had an aura about him,” Marc Leishman said Sunday.
“He’s worked hard. I actually played Anthony his first round back in Saudi a few years ago, and it wasn’t easy to say the least, and I was very skeptical at first,” Cam Smith offered. “But what he’s been able to do over the last couple of seasons and dig deep and grind and do what he did today is pretty special.”
Ever since joining LIV, Anthony Kim has been trying to pull it all together. He talked about technological advances and his aging body. He chanted “1 percent better” as he tried to bounce back. Twelve years is a long, long time to be away from the game. But when you’re faced with the battles Anthony Kim was fighting, it can feel like an eternity and a second at the same time. Those 12 years were about everything but golf, and yet golf tells that story to the fullest.
“One thousand percent. I want to inspire people,” Kim said on Sunday. “I told my wife this: The only way I can reach the number of people I want to reach is to win.
His story has already resonated with those who followed his run on Sunday in Australia – those who saw Kim rebuild while in the league.
“What he’s doing is impressive,” Rahm said. “Where he’s been in life to where he is now – I’ve been able to play with him. I played in Singapore in his first season with him at the beginning. We both played with him here last year in the first round, and I played with him yesterday, and to go forward, to jump from these two times to yesterday, it’s amazing.”
“What an incredible story, first of all,” DeChambeau said. “From a very low place, to almost leave this world and then come back and really tell and raise his little girl and be a family man and be 1 percent better every day. It’s an inspiring story that I think honestly deserves more media attention than it does. It deserves it.”
Hippocrates said that healing is a matter of time and opportunity. Tolstoy said that patience and time are two great heroes.
Anthony Kim’s story, no matter where it is told, is one of all those things. About how we heal and how time changes us. About taking chances and the importance of being patient enough to believe that you are on the right path for the right reasons. Anthony Kim’s comeback is all about golf, but he hopes it will touch anyone who has or struggles with addiction.
“Don’t give up,” said Kim on Sunday in his message to the people. “That’s it. Don’t stop.”
