Anthony Kim reacts after finishing DFL on comeback

Anthony Kim admitted to “playing like a**” after finishing dead last on his return to the game.

The three-time PGA Tour winner finished on 16-over-par at LIV Golf Jeddah, his first competitive outing in almost 12 years.

He was 11 shots adrift of his nearest challenger at the bottom of the leaderboard and 33 shots off the pace set by the winner of the event, Joaquin Niemann.

Afterwards, Kim admitted that it had been a “rough” week but said he was just happy to be playing professional golf again.

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“I feel very blessed that I have this opportunity,” said the 38-year-old. “I’ve got a lot to work on, but I had a lot of good things go my way this week, so I’m looking forward to building on that and being in contention at some point this year.”

Kim won’t have to wait long for his next start, with the LIV Golf League moving on to Hong Kong next week and, despite the Jeddah, he says he can’t wait to peg it up again.

“I’m more encouraged after playing this tournament and playing like a**, really but I’m very encouraged,” he said. “I’m excited about what’s coming. My game is starting to shape up. I’m doing things that I used to do before.

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“I’m definitely hitting the ball well. I’m doing a lot of things well. I know the scores don’t reflect that. It’s disappointing to score that way. But at the same time, I know I have a lot to build on, and I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing.”

He added: “The best thing about my game was me committing to my shots. It didn’t have to do with my golf swing. My swing is fine. I’m putting, I’m chipping, I’m doing everything well. I’m just not as focused as I need to be over the shots.

“I think that that’s just time and some more repetition. I think I can take care of that pretty quickly.

“It’s interesting because I didn’t even have a marker in my pocket on the first hole when I started the golf tournament. There’s a lot of things that I’m getting used to, and these changes are obviously unfamiliar to me, seeing as I haven’t played much golf over the last 12-and-a-half years.”

Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor