by JULIE HA
It’s been a lingering question on many golf fans’ minds for years: What ever happened to Anthony Kim?
Sports Illustrated writer Alan Shipnuck, in a recent story for Golf.com, may just have the answer.
But, first, a little history for those who don’t remember Kim, now 29, who hasn’t been seen or heard from on the PGA since 2012.
The one-time rising golf superstar, whom many considered the “next Tiger Woods,” got off to a strong start in his professional career, after earning his PGA Tour card in 2007 and going on to four top-10 finishes during that rookie season. By the following year, the Korean American would win two PGA Tour tournaments, including the Wachovia Championship where he defeated former British Open champion Ben Curtis—and set a tournament record with the lowest score in history, at 16-under par 272 total.
His explosive performance at the Ryder Cup in September of 2008 — Paul Azinger admiringly called his fiercely competitive spirit “infectious” — was considered critical to the U.S.’ victory. The PGA thought it had a star in the making. Not only did Kim seem to ooze the talent — he set a record for the most birdies in a round at the 2009 Master Tournament in Augusta, Ga., with 11 — but he also carried an unabashed swagger about him that the media loved to write about. Some golf commentators said Kim was the type of character that may just add some spice to the sport, in much the same way Tiger Woods did.
Of course, the flip side was that the same commentators also speculated that Kim’s legendary partying off the course could derail his young career. As those rumors were swirling, Kim also began suffering injury after injury — first in 2010 to this left thumb, then his left wrist and later, in 2012, his Achilles tendon in his left leg. Surgery to treat the tendon in the summer of 2012 was said to force his absence from play for up to a year. But after a year, still no Anthony Kim, and earlier this spring, the Golf Channel reported he no longer even played recreational golf. Meanwhile, his agency IMG’s official line was that Kim was injured, but was still hoping to return one day.
And the golf world continued to wonder and speculate: Where is Anthony Kim? And why isn’t he playing golf — at all?
Then, last Friday, Shipnuck’s Golf.com story finally seemed to provide an explanation for why a golfer of this much promise and raw talent would suddenly disappear from the scene. Shipnuck first called IMG’s official line into question, citing an unidentified close friend of Kim’s in Dallas, who said “AK’s not injured. ”
“His swing looks good, the strike sounds solid, his ball flight is good,” the friend told Shipnuck.
The Sports Illustrated writer goes on to explain that what may be standing in the way of Kim ever picking up a golf club competitively again is a hefty insurance policy against career-ending injury that’s worth close to $20 million, tax-free. Shipnuck, in an interview with Boston’s NPR news station WBUR, explained that many golfers have such private policies because, unlike in other sports, there is no long-term guaranteed contract for X amount of dollars.
“You know, in golf, you have to kill what you eat,” Shipnuck told NPR. “Kim had the foresight or the good advice to take out a big one. You know, I’m pretty sure the number’s $18 million, tax free. It sets up this dilemma because if he comes back and plays on the PGA Tour, the policy is voided. Does he take the money and retire in his 20s and then spend the rest of his life in regret of what might have been? Or does he come back and try to be the player he was, fail miserably and leave all that money on the table? On the other hand, if he can come back and play at the level that he did, he can make $18 million in a few years.”
The sports writer said he believes Kim may have a “complicated relationship” with golf, in part, because of great pressure his immigrant father reportedly put on him. When asked if Kim will ever return to the Tour, Shipnuck answered that he’d personally love to see him do so. “It would be a huge story,” he told NPR. “And the back story, you know: ‘This guy gave up $18 million to chase the dream.’ I think sports fans would respond to that.”
But as dramatic a narrative as that sounds, only one person can write the next chapter of the Anthony Kim story.
Featured photo via Getty
