ONE TO WATCH WELCOME BACK, MR KIM
Why convincing Anthony Kim to come out of exile is Greg Norman’s shrewdest move yet!
To the ocean’s king carnivore, the opportunity to dine on a delicacy once dubbed “the next Tiger Woods” was not going to be left to the competition. The Great White took the bait again – and this time without guarantee of feeling satiated.
Greg Norman pounced on the chance to ‘rebirth’ Anthony Kim, a prodigy whose meteoric rise to the top table of golf in the late noughties threatened to shake up the sport in a fashion not seen since the man in Sun Day Red.
“Welcome back and to the LIV Golf family, mate. The golf world has missed you,” said Commissioner Norman, unveiling his shiny new trading card ahead of LIV Golf’s Jeddah event.
And while the ‘hit points’ of an injury-ravaged Kim are unlikely to prevail in a duel against the Charizard-level attributes of a Jon Rahm or Brooks Koepka, there is a method behind the madness in assembling golf’s most dysfunctional family.
Everyone brings something different to the table, and Kim’s special attack is firmly grounded in rarity and unknown potential for the breakaway tour.
You see, Kim became a cult-like figure during a whirlwind four-year smash and grab on the PGA Tour, racking up as many professional wins and two top-5 Major finishes.
He joined an exclusive club of only five players to win three times on the PGA Tour before turning 25, alongside Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott and Tiger.
A glittering résumé seemed an inevitability before Kim’s battles with injury took hold around 2010, spiralling the Californian’s game to the self-confessed point of “non-existence”.
The now-38-year-old is undoubtedly one of golf’s ‘what might have beens’, making his resurrection after 12 years in the wilderness all the more compelling and attractive to fans filled with nostalgia.
For Norman and the Saudis, Kim’s comeback might just be the coup that draws eyeballs towards golf’s louder sibling with less judgment – something that remains LIV’S hardest barrier to hurdle.
That’s why this is the shrewdest signing LIV has made to date. Even among some traditionalists, there is a growing sentiment that the stages of denial, anger and depression have sailed, and LIV’S needle could be twitching toward one of acceptance for the first time.
It’s a Hail Mary move designed to swing the floating voter – and it may just work. The star power of Rahm, Koepka, Smith, Dechambeau and DJ haven’t been the catalysts Norman anticipated. Big names alone are proving insufficient to capture the interest their talent deserves.
But Kim is the cult hero LIV never knew it needed. There is palpable excitement now, a will to watch one of golf’s greatest enigmas competing as a ‘wildcard’ throughout the rest of the 2024 season. It’s a shot to nothing for LIV – and Kim too for that matter, especially if the terms of his competition-restricting insurance agreement, reportedly worth $10 million, have expired, as believed.
It means he is released from his self-imposed captivity, free to swing with a guaranteed boatload of Riyal behind him. All superheroes must be given the chance to rise again – and LIV appears to be the perfect world in which to make it happen.