Going back to the initial months of the 2024 season, Anthony Kim’s comeback was indeed a shocker. The 39-year-old was one of the best players on the PGA Tour when he parted ways with the game in 2012 after suffering from many injuries. Without an easier way to tee up on the PGA Tour’s regular season, Kim decided to accept an alleged $12 million contract from Greg Norman. It was expected that after a 12-year-long hiatus, the 3-time PGA Tour winner would play just as well when he first bid farewell. But the reality was disappointing, to say the least.

In all the LIV Golf events he played, Kim never finished in the top 10 or had a decent finish; his best performance was at Greenbrier when he finished solo 36th. Truthfully, if the breakaway circuit had 72-hole stroke play and a cut with a field like the PGA Tour, Kim would have missed all. However, the 54-hole format with a limited field and without a 36-hole cut helped Kim to not have a miserable season on paper. Yet, everyone wondered if Kim would ever play better. And he just did.

Playing on the Asian Tour’s International Series in Qatar, AK shot 71 and 72 to make his first cut in the last decade. Once deemed the next Tiger Woods (he won three titles on the PGA Tour and became only the fifth to do so before turning 25), Kim is finally showing his true form. This impressed Woods’s former coach, Hank Haney, who worked with him from 2004 to 2010 and assisted him to win 31 titles on the PGA Tour, including six majors. Seeing AK get himself together, Haney posted on X, “@AnthonyKim_Golf is going to shock some people soon with the way he’s swinging and working at his game.” 

Since starting on LIV Golf, Kim knew for him to play better and catch up with every other golfer, he had to work harder and work on his swing. AK has posted many of his swing videos on X, showing how he was working relentlessly at getting better, and now he has reaped the results. But he is not going to stop there; Kim has bigger plans!

Anthony Kim will truly shock the critics, as Hank Haney believes

The last time Anthony Kim played four rounds of golf was at the Arnold Palmer Invitational back in March 2012. Since then, he has played only three days. However, he has not lost all hope, even though the golf world was unimpressed with him making the cut in Qatar. Kim is stronger and has a message for the world.

After making the cut, he addressed the press conference and told Gulf News, “I know a lot of people have probably seen my last year and don’t think that’s possible [contending on Sundays], but I think it’s going to happen. I 100% believe in myself, and I think it’s just a matter of time.” He may want it to happen at Doha Golf Club, just as Patrick Cantlay won his first title in nearly four years. But it is not that easy.

Clearing up doubts about his form, AK explained that before joining LIV Golf, he had not played any golf and picked up clubs only two months before the first event. He expressed, “It’s a pretty hard thing to do and lots of time to make up for,” but he is still trying and will win again. Hopefully, that again comes in 2025 at LIV Golf as Kim faces the top pros and once again becomes one of them.