Anthony Kim completed one of golf’s most improbable comebacks on Sunday, charging past Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau to capture LIV Golf Adelaide — his first professional win since the 2010 Houston Open.
Starting the final round five shots behind the co-leaders, Kim closed with a brilliant nine-under 63 at The Grange Golf Club to finish at 23 under, three strokes clear of Rahm. DeChambeau slipped into a tie for third alongside Tyrrell Hatton and Peter Uihlein at 17 under.
“I want to be a good example,” Kim said. “I would say that I wasn’t the best person, the best partner, the best whatever you want to call it, the best son I could be when I was younger. But who I am today is a completely different person. With God, my family, my sobriety being the key things to my life, I can go as far as I want.”
The 40-year-old’s path back to the winner’s circle has been anything but smooth. Once ranked as high as No. 6 in the world and hailed as a future superstar, Kim won three PGA Tour titles before turning 25, starred for the United States in the 2008 Ryder Cup, and set a Masters record with 11 birdies in a single round. Then injuries — including a torn Achilles, wrist and shoulder issues — derailed his career. He quietly stepped away in 2012.
In the years that followed, Kim battled drug and alcohol addiction and later revealed he had contemplated suicide over nearly two decades, “even when playing the PGA Tour.” He returned to competition in 2024 by joining LIV Golf after 12 years away, but the early results were discouraging. Across two seasons split between LIV and the Asian Tour, he failed to crack the top 25 and was eventually relegated, earning his way back only through January’s LIV Promotions event.
Now part of Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces squad, Kim arrived in Adelaide still searching for validation. He found it in emphatic fashion. While Rahm briefly stretched the lead early in the round, Kim methodically erased the deficit. After keeping pace on the front nine, he caught fire down the stretch — making four consecutive birdies from Nos. 12 through 15, draining putts ranging from 11 to 17 feet. Another birdie on the 17th sealed the outcome and turned the walk up the 18th into a celebration.
“I know I can make a lot of birdies. I know my self-belief is second to none,” Kim said. “Obviously, taking 12 and a half years off the game is a long time, and you have to build that confidence back. So, I guess from when I was in my 20s, I was never scared to play anybody. I’m not scared to play anybody now. I know this is just one golf tournament, but I believe in myself. That will never change … Nothing is holding me back. Nothing is holding me back. I just have to keep working. The 1% better every day thing is a mindset that I’m going to carry with me until the day I die. I don’t see why I can’t make it to the top again.”
Editorial credit: Jeff Schultes / Shutterstock.com