Staff WriterAnthony Kim is staring down the barrel of one of the most important stretches of his career, but you wouldn’t know it from his tone.
The three-time PGA Tour champion insists he’s not feeling the heat as he bids to resurrect his LIV Golf League career through The International Series.
The 40-year-old former Ryder Cup star, once golf’s brightest comet before vanishing into a 12-year wilderness, was handed a lifeline by LIV Golf with a wild card slot.
Two years later, surrounded by Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Joaquin Niemann and other heavyweights, Anthony Kim couldn’t keep himself out of the relegation trapdoor. The wild card is gone, and with it the easy way back in.
Now, his route back to the big time lies in The International Series – the Asian Tour’s turbocharged pathway where the season’s Rankings champion earns an automatic ticket onto the 2026 LIV Golf roster.
It’s golf’s equivalent of snakes and ladders, and with five tournaments left starting this week at the Jakarta International Championship, Kim knows the climb won’t be simple.
“My goal is to play well over the next five or six weeks, and just let things play out. Right now, I’m focused on the events in front of me. If you play well, you have an opportunity. I’m not too worried about what’s ahead – just taking it one week at a time,” Kim said.
He admits his game is a patchwork quilt of brilliance and bafflement. “My game has been very streaky. I’ve had some stretches where I feel like a world-class player, and I’ve had some stretches where I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. But that comes with not playing golf for 12 years.
I’m at a point now where I feel more comfortable being out there, and I think great results are in front of me. As long as I can stay healthy, I believe that I’ll have a lot of chances to win in the future.”
If that sounds like a man under pressure, he’s quick to set the record straight. “Pressure is making rent when you’re an immigrant to a new country like my mom was. You know, I took a lot of things for granted when I was younger.
In my 20s and playing professional golf, I had a lot of access to different things. But at 40, I realise all of us sitting up here, we’re blessed to be sitting here and getting to travel the world, and play golf in front of a bunch of people, in amazing places such as here in Jakarta.
“We have to appreciate that and have gratitude for the opportunity we have in front of us. We start tomorrow; we are all at level par with the chance to change our lives every week. So you know, this is not pressure. This is a blessing.”
Kim isn’t the first to attempt this route back. Scott Vincent punched his ticket onto LIV Golf by topping the International Series in 2022, and Andy Ogletree turned his 2023 rankings win into a move onto Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers GC team.
The opportunity is there – if Kim can string together the sort of golf that once made him the most dangerous player never to win a major.
And he knows the platform is bigger than just his own comeback. “It’s great. Golf is growing overall, and giving Asian Tour players the chance to compete for bigger purses in bigger events is important. Hopefully, some of them get the chance to prove themselves on a bigger stage.
Golf keeps evolving, and players seem to be getting better at a younger age. I’ve played with some of those guys, and they’re playing some really good golf.”
For Anthony Kim, it’s not pressure, it’s possibility. The next five weeks will decide whether the once-lost superstar writes a new chapter in his turbulent golfing saga—or fades once more into the shadows.
