Anthony Kim's impossible LIV win: How'd it happen - and what does it mean?

Goodness, gracious, what a Saturday night (or early Sunday morning). Anthony Kim is a winner yet again, clinching the biggest chapter in an outrageous comeback story with a victory at a raucous LIV Australia. Below, GOLF editors Dylan Dethier, Sean Zak and James Colgan discuss the biggest moments, feelings, and takeaways from a most unexpected golf valentine.

1. Gentlemen, it’s nearly 1 a.m. in Chicago but I won’t be sleeping anytime soon because Anthony Kim just won on LIV Golf. It’s outright impossible to put everything about his story, his years away from the game, his battle with drug abuse and even his struggles since returning. But on Sunday in Australia, he shot 63 to beat Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau. What are you thinking right now?

Dylan Dethier, senior writer: Impossible. That’s what I keep thinking. No way. Anthony Kim’s early comeback golf was fascinating, compelling theater. But there was no sign that this was coming. He was not competitive in his first two years on LIV. He got relegated. That seemed an anticlimactic but inevitable end to the experiment. I was amazed and impressed that he made it through LIV’s Promotions event to earn his spot back; that was impressive. But chasing down Rahm and Bryson in the final round of LIV’s biggest event is like, six tiers up from there. Shocking on several levels.

Sean Zak, senior writer: I have spent most of the evening just laughing out loud at it. It’s so comically improbable that I couldn’t feel anything but joyous laughter bubbling up. He stared down two of the best players in the world and thumped them by three or more. That was among the most fun golf watches I’ve had in a very, very long time. (Apologies for not acknowledging, like, everything in AK’s past, which is important context!)

James Colgan, news and features editor: I’m thinking that the last time Anthony Kim won a golf tournament, Instagram didn’t exist. Literally. The fact that your winless streak can span three Presidential administrations, a decade-long disappearance from public life, two years of the most dispiriting tournament golf played by anyone on planet earth … and STILL end with a victory? There are no words. That’s just golf magic.

2. DeChambeau faded early, but Rahm continued to hang around. Kim had to make basically everything. Eventually, he won by three. What was top of mind as you watched it play out?

Dethier Outside of the Ryder Cup, you just don’t see guys fist-pumping a whole lot these days. But AK just kept pouring putts in the middle and unleashing haymakers. He didn’t miss a shot the last…two hours? I kept waiting for the magnitude of the moment to hit, for pressure to trip him up. If anything the opposite happened.

Zak: The last time we saw anyone hoop that many putts to come back and steal a tournament? We were in St. Andrews with Cam Smith. Maybe that’s why I was laughing throughout it. Everything dripped into the center of the cup like there was nowhere else these putts could go. Reminds me of a Paul Azinger phrase from the day after Smith had that birdie barrage at the Old Course: “His putts, they would have fell into a thimble.”

Colgan: I was thinking about how, every so often, a player experiences several hours in which the hole appears the size of an asteroid crater. And I was thinking about how Anthony Kim was definitely having one of those experiences.

3. Is there a way you can contextualize it all for those who weren’t following Kim’s journey closely?

Dethier: Look, the fascinating thing about Kim isn’t just that he retired young. It’s that he vanished. Off the grid. Out of the public eye. For over a decade, the golf world — outside a small trusted circle — had no idea what he was up to. It felt like a big deal whenever we saw him at all.

Early in this job I wrote up an interaction Kim had with a reader named Ben outside an LA brunch spot. It felt like a big deal at the time; he’d been gone for so long. He said his golf game was “non-existent.” That was seven years ago. Look, I’m not saying he just won the Masters. But for a guy to be that far away from the sport for that long? I just can’t think of any equivalent.

Zak: This might be a trick question, actually. Because Kim has shared just a snippet of what he really battled. I get the sense that he’s interested in sharing more about his addictions and depression and how that pushed his life right to the edge. Now he’s created the perfect ending, and I think we’ll actually receive a lot more context in the future. I’ll be anxious to learn more when he’s ready.

Colgan: On February 20, 2025, Anthony Kim celebrated two years sober (ironically, given my earlier analogy) on Instagram. He detailed suffering from such serious withdrawal symptoms on his first days in rehab that he needed physical assistance to walk. He suggested he had used drugs while playing in major championships. And THAT story? That story didn’t include the decade he’d spent away or the rest of the golf stuff he needed to work through to get within a hundred miles of a victory … let alone in the winner’s circle.

4. There was a flurry of hugs for Kim in the moments after his win from all kinds of LIV characters. One was CEO of the league, Scott O’Neil, which made me think more about the league at-large. Does this mean anything extra for LIV Golf?

Dethier: I have to be honest: in this moment, I have no idea. In many ways this feels like an Anthony Kim story more than it does a LIV story — but the massive crowds and frenetic energy on site contributed tremendously to a wild night of golf viewing, so the fact that it came at LIV’s flagship event has to be a win.

I guess here’s what I feel certain of: this was the league’s biggest, realest moment thus far. A genuinely fascinating story intersecting with a genuinely preposterous stretch of golf. You can’t build the whole plane out of AK’s comeback — he can only win for the first time once! — but safe to say they’d take Rahm-Bryson-AK every event the rest of the way.

Zak: Imagine if this happened a week ago, when LIV Golf played under the lights in front of measly crowds in Saudi Arabia. Now throw that image away, because it happened in Adelaide, at what event organizers call the most-attended golf event in the history of Australia. It may not be a LIV story first, but AK gave LIV some of the best visuals it has ever received from the actual competition. Fans crowding in on the 18th hole, AK waving during a champions walk up to the green, champagne showering over him on the green. That trumps any concert-stage-champagne-and-sparklers we’ve seen in the last four years.

Colgan: Of course it does! We’re up at god-knows-what-hour talking about a LIV event! That’s a substantial change from the usual for the league in a very big way. And Sean, to your point about the crowds … serious question: Why doesn’t LIV play MORE events in Australia?

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