Anthony Kim at the 2012 Shell Houston Open. | Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images
Anthony Kim, who at one point was the 6th-ranked player in the world, will return to pro golf after a decade-long absence.
Anthony Kim will tee it up in a professional golf event for the first time in over a decade.
He will do so at LIV Golf Jeddah, held next week at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club in Saudi Arabia, according to Rex Hoggard of the Golf Channel and multiple sources on X, including @FlushingItGolf.
Kim will not join one of LIV Golf’s 13 teams during next week’s competition, and will instead play as a “wildcard.”
It will mark his first professional start since 2012, a season marred by injuries, missed cuts, and withdrawals. Of the 10 tournaments he started that year, Kim finished only two, with his best finish coming at the Honda Classic, where he tied for 42nd.
After the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship in May, he had surgery on his Achilles tendon, but Kim has not returned to professional golf since.
Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Anthony Kim and Phil Mickelson during the 2009 Wachovia Championship at Quail Hollow.
Kim, who played collegiately for three seasons at the University of Oklahoma, has three career PGA Tour victories.
The first came at Quail Hollow in 2008, when he won the then-Wachovia Championship by five shots over Ben Curtis. Kim was just 23 years old at the time.
His other triumphs came at the 2008 AT&T National at Congressional and the 2010 Shell Houston Open, which came in a playoff over Vaughn Taylor.
As for major championships, Kim has recorded three top-10 finishes, with his best being a solo third finish at Augusta National in 2010, when Phil Mickelson won his third Masters.
Now, Kim will join Mickelson in Saudi Arabia this week, as a curious golf world will get to see how the former top-10 player fairs in his return.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
