{"id":481786,"date":"2026-02-15T15:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T15:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/481786\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T15:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T15:02:08","slug":"anthony-kim-completes-stunning-comeback-from-golfing-obscurity-to-win-liv-golf-adelaide-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/481786\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Kim completes stunning comeback from golfing obscurity to win LIV Golf Adelaide \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony Kim added a stunning-yet-true chapter to his storybook return to professional golf by winning LIV Golf<\/a> Adelaide on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old American came from five strokes back after three rounds with an \u200cemphatic three-shot victory after his bogey-free round of nine-under 63 at The Grange Golf Club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really don\u2019t know what to say right now,\u201d said Kim, who has been open and honest about his past struggles with alcohol and drugs and how he got sober. \u201cIt\u2019s been overwhelming. I\u2019m never not going to fight for \u200cmy family. God gave me a talent and I was able to produce some good golf today. I knew it was coming. Nobody else has to believe in me but me. For anybody who\u2019s struggling, you can get through anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The build-up to Sunday focused on LIV Golf\u2019s biggest stars, Jon Rahm \u200band Bryson DeChambeau, co-leaders at 19 under after three rounds. Kim, at 14 under, was somewhere out of the frame even though he was in third place.<\/p>\n

The current stars were basically left in his dust, as Kim carded birdies at the fourth, fifth, seventh and ninth before three-in-a-row from the 12th. Another birdie on the par-4 17th proved an exclamation point to his first professional win in nearly 16 years since the 2010 Shell Houston Open on the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew this was going to happen, but for it actually \u200bhappen is pretty insane,\u201d Kim said. \u201cThank you to everyone that\u2019s been in my corner. I\u2019m going to keep doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rahm shot one-under 71 for finish three strokes back at 20 under for his second consecutive second-place finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a weird way, as a competitor, I probably shouldn\u2019t say this, but that was a joy to watch,\u201d Rahm said of Kim. \u201cTo see that image on 18 of \u200chim \u200chugging \u200bhis wife and daughter, any man with a soul is going to have a soft spot for that. I was almost tearing up.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeChambeau posted a two-over 74 to fall to a tie for third with England\u2019s Tyrrell Hatton (67) and Peter Uihlein (68) of the United States.<\/p>\n

Kim\u2019s bogey-free effort \u2013 which tied the course record \u2013 followed rounds of 67, 67 and 68 with a total of \u200bthree bogeys and one eagle in the third round at the par-five ninth. He also collected the $4 million prize for first place.<\/p>\n

\"AnthonyAnthony Kim celebrates with his wife Emily and his daughter Isabella. Photograph: Brenton Edwards\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

His tournament performance is all the more impressive because of his journey to be in this position, which was his \u200cfirst start as a member of 4Aces GC.<\/p>\n

Kim joined Dustin Johnson\u2019s LIV Golf \u200bteam before the second event of the 2026 season, replacing Patrick Reed on a full-time basis.<\/p>\n

The one-time rising star, who turned pro in 2006, returned from a 12-year hiatus in 2024 and played the past two seasons \u2060on this tour as a wild card. However, he was relegated after the 2025 season and had \u2060to go through the Promotions event, where he made the \u200bcut on the number before finishing third to regain his place in the league.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t until Reed announced his intention to return to the PGA Tour that a spot on a team finally opened up for Kim. It wasn\u2019t an automatic yes for Kim, who said he was drawn to the 4Aces because he likes Johnson and fellow new Belgian team-mates Thomas Pieters and LIV newcomer Thomas Detry.<\/p>\n

A three-time winner across six seasons on the PGA Tour in his 20s, Kim had Achilles tendon surgery in 2012 and has been open about his rehab from drug and alcohol addiction during his hiatus from professional golf.<\/p>\n

Kim failed to finish better than 36th and placed 50th or worse in five of 11 LIV Golf events in 2024. He played in 13 events last year, with a T25 in Dallas and a T29 in Miami his only finishes better than T44.<\/p>\n

Kim wound up in the relegation zone, and it appeared his LIV Golf days could be numbered. But he rebounded to earn a wild-card spot in the Promotions event and then was signed to 4Aces \u200cafter opening the season with a T22 in \u2060Riyadh last week.<\/p>\n

In addition to his T22 last week, Kim closed out 2025 with a T5 at the PIF Saudi International. He has risen from 4,221st in the Official World Golf Ranking two years ago to 847th, and that climb can continue with LIV players now receiving world rankings points for top-10 finishes. The win Sunday will boost Kim that much more up the rankings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it wasn\u2019t one \u200cof us this week, to have [Kim] win here in Adelaide at our premier event is pretty cool,\u201d said Cameron Smith, team captain of all- Australian Ripper GC. \u201cI\u2019m so happy for him. He\u2019s worked hard. I actually played with Anthony his first round back in Saudi a few years ago, \u200band it was scrappy to say the least, and I was very sceptical at the start. But what he\u2019s been able to do over the past couple \u200bof seasons and dig deep and grind out and then do what he did today is pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Kim added a stunning-yet-true chapter to his storybook return to professional golf by winning LIV Golf Adelaide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,228289,85],"class_list":["post-481786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-liv-golf-invitational-series","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}