In January 2010, Apple CEO Steve Jobs stepped before a packed audience and announced the company’s latest world-changing invention: the iPad.
Three months later, the world’s first iPad users booted up their devices, connected to the internet and were greeted with a golf headline: Anthony Kim had just won the Houston Open. Did those same tech diehards take to Instagram to celebrate the news? No. The social media giant was still six months away from being founded.
That is how long does it take Anthony Kim’s last victory and his last, arriving after 16 long years early Sunday morning at LIV Australia. The 40-year-old pro shocked the golf world by winning by three shots at Royal Adelaide, completing a comeback that seemed impossible by optimistic standards just a few months earlier.
Kim won Sunday after a flawless, nine-under, bogey-free final round with four straight birdies – and five in six holes – pushing several shots clear of a chasing group that included major winners Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau. Kim’s fist pumps reached a fever pitch with an emotional scene on the 18th hole, where some of the 38,500 Australian fans in attendance stormed the 18th fairway behind him to capture the scene on the green. After Kim’s tap-in par putt fell to tie the tournament at 23 under par, his teammates showered him with “sparkling water” (according to LIV announcer Arlo White), and Kim shared an emotional embrace with his wife and young daughter.
“I don’t really know what to say right now,” Kim said through tears. “It’s a little overwhelming, but I’m never not going to not fight for my family. God gave me a talent, I was able to produce some good golf today. I knew it was coming. No one else had to believe in me but me.”
The full extent of Kim’s comeback from the golf world remains a mystery, but those watching in the United States early Sunday morning had all the context they needed. Kim returned from more than a decade away when golf’s lost superstar played poorly enough to be demoted from LIV Golf, and now, less than two years later, he was back in the winner’s circle of perhaps the competition’s biggest event.
“I don’t really know how to put it into words,” Kim said. “I knew this would happen, but for it to actually happen is pretty insane.”
Kim disappeared from pro golf for more than a decade after the highs of the early 2010s, and his whereabouts remained one of the most publicized stories in the sport until the mid-2020s. In the year since returning to the sport to compete at LIV Golf, Kim has discussed his struggles with addiction and the depths of his recovery in a series of social media posts and interviews with LIV’s official social media channels. In six days, on February 20, he will celebrate three years sober.
“For anyone going through a hard time right now, you can get through anything,” Kim said on Sunday.
With the victory, Kim won $4 million and can rise to 200th place in the official World Golf Ranking.
“I just want to thank all the people who supported me,” Kim said. “Including you, when I wasn’t playing well and I was on the verge of never returning to LIV, I’ve always been supportive. Thank you to everyone who has been in my corner, so I’ll keep doing it.”
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