Over the course of the past 12 years, Anthony Kim, the golfer who was anointed as Tiger Woods‘ heir apparent in 2008 after winning two tournaments and rising to No. 6 in the world rankings, showed little sign of life.
He was known to have put on weight and also had six dogs and two monkeys at home.
“I didn’t pick up a club again until two months ago,” he revealed in an interview with David Feherty, the commentator for LIV Golf, the tournament he joined just a month ago at the Tour stop in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
This decade-long period was full of speculation and he suffered with addiction. He is now feeling healthier, is the father and has returned to golf because his wife wanted to learn.
“Golf is important to me and not important to me at the same time,” Kim said. “I’ve had some very dark moments. I’ve had some very low moments. I’ve felt very alone, even when there’s a million people around. I needed to get my mind straight and figure out what my purpose was on this planet.”
A 10 million-dollar policy
His talent was immediately apparent on the comeback. Although he started out shooting high rounds over par, he was able to shoot a 65 in the sixth round of golf he played, on the final day in Hong Kong.
“I have an interesting relationship with golf,” Kim said. “I don’t think I ever loved it. What’s very weird to me is I’m falling in love with the game. That’s such a weird spot for me because golf was filled with pressure. Golf was filled with lots of different emotions for me.
“Because my family had to go through a lot to give me this opportunity to play golf. So with that added pressure, I was willing to risk a lot more. That was my nature. I was aggressive on the golf course. I was aggressive off the golf course, and that led to my demise.”
He didn’t go into his problems too much, but he did slip that he was surrounded by some undesirable characters.
“I’m not going to lie, I was around some bad people,” Kim said. “People that took advantage of me. Scam artists. And when you’re 24 or 25, even 30 years old, you don’t realize the snakes that are living under your roof.”
The Oklahoma golfer wanted to make it clear that he did not run away.
“I know public perception is that I took this money and ran and decided I was just going to hang out,” Kim said. “That wasn’t the case at all. I had multiple, multiple surgeries in a few years. And my body is still not what it used to be.”