There’s a time and place for debate—for bickering from either side of golf’s proverbial aisle. But on days like Sunday, it’s hard to give a shit about any of that. Because what we just saw from Anthony Kim is truly impossible to comprehend.
Trailing by five shots to both Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm, two of the best players on the planet, you would’ve been hard-pressed to find a single soul who thought Kim had a prayer. But there’s a reason why the game’s not played on paper.
Anyone who remembers watching Kim back in the day knows he can get on a heater. I mean, the guy made 11 birdies during a single round at Augusta National in 2009. And that’s the dude we saw on Sunday in Australia.
He made four birdies on the front nine, making the turn with a 4-under 32. After a couple pars on 10 and 11, Kim birdied 12, 13, 14, 15, and 17, fist pumping and celebrating like it was the late 2000s.
And with a three-shot lead in hand striding down the 18th, the scene in Adelaide resembled the 2018 TOUR Championship when Tiger Woods won for the first time in five years. But for Kim, it was the first in 16 years.
“I don’t really know what to say right now. It’s been overwhelming. But I’m never not going to fight for my family,” Kim said, drenched from a champion’s shower. “God gave me a talent. I was able to produce some good golf today. I knew it was coming. Nobody else has to believe in me but me, and for anybody that’s struggling, you can get through anything.”
AK was once one of the most popular players in the game. The man with a bedazzled belt buckle was suppose to be the next guy. But then he disappeared. For over a decade, golf fans were left thinking “what if?”
Then he reemerged, battle tested from years of addition, injuries, and surgeries with a new passion: family.
After being relegated from LIV Golf, earning his way back via the Promotions Event, signing with 4Aces GC, and taking down two of golf’s giants at the Saudi league’s biggest tournament of the year, AK is back to doing what we once thought we’d see him do dozens of times: winning.
It’s going to take awhile to actually digest what that man just did.