Anthony Kim is a winner again.
The 40-year-old American caught fire on Sunday at LIV Golf Adelaide, emerging from five strokes back of LIV’s undeniable top two players to win by three strokes over Jon Rahm. Kim shot a final-round 63 with birdies on five of the last seven holes to complete a truly stunning comeback not just in the tournament, but to his story.
“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. God gave me a talent and I was able to produce some good golf today,” Kim said on the broadcast.
The win took place in front of an estimated crowd of around 40,000 — Adelaide and the golf-loving, pro event-starved Australian market have been a major success for LIV. Thousands followed Kim’s final round, and a path had to be cleared for him through the throng of fans as he walked to the 18th green, repeatedly beating his chest and waving his hand to the crowd in appreciation.
It is Kim’s first professional win since the 2010 Shell Houston Open, back when he was a PGA Tour star. So much has happened since then.
Before the 2024 season, LIV signed Kim to a two-year contract, with the hope that golf’s great recluse — he had not played professionally in 12 years, struggled with substance abuse issues and was spoken of more as a ghost than a guy who played on a winning Ryder Cup team and contended at the Masters — would continue to drive interest in the upstart league.
It would be very difficult to say that was the case until now. Kim, who had only recently begun playing golf again, struggled mightily to compete, and an aggressive Twitter persona that mixed positive messages of sobriety with far-right politics was divisive. When he was relegated from LIV at the end of the 2025 season, even Kim could not argue it was deserved. He had finished in the top half of a LIV event exactly once.
Anthony Kim caught fire on the back nine on Sunday. (Mark Brake / Getty Images)
But something happened over the winter. Instead of fading away, Kim clearly found some of his old game and earned his way back into the league via the LIV promotions event. The week began with him being a late arrival to Australia due to visa issues (he posted on X he failed to apply for one initially). Then he joined the 4 Aces, marking the first time he had been part of a LIV team, not a wild card.
Kim shot 5-under on Thursday and Friday, then 4-under on Saturday. It put him in third place, behind Rahm and DeChambeau, but five strokes back and the slimmest of chances against two of the world’s best — 0.3 percent, according to DataGolf.
He took it. A birdie on No. 4, then another on the fifth hole. Two more birdies and he had a front-nine 32, making him more than a secondary story.
As Kim poured in a birdie putt on the par-5 13th to give him the lead, he erupted with a monster fist pump. Then he did it again when rolling in a long birdie putt on the 14th, a par-3 hole with a stadium-esque buildup around it. It was more of the same on the 15th, another birdie putt and another emphatic celebration.
LIV executives were probably doing the same thing. After a tough few months for the tour, with Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed both leaving, Kim’s win is an on-course success story that could cross into the mainstream; their confidence in him is validated.