Anthony Kim wins LIV Golf Adelaide
in a remarkable career comeback
[February 16, 2026]
ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — Anthony Kim walked out of a PGA
Tour scoring trailer at Quail Hollow and straight to the parking lot
on May 4, 2012. He put his clubs in the trunk and drove away,
vanishing from golf and from the public view for 12 years.
Kim was all the way back Sunday in Australia, full of swagger and
energy, as he capped off a stunning rally — not just in the final
round of LIV Golf Adelaide but in life. Five shots behind Jon Rahm
and Bryson DeChambeau, he closed with a 9-under 63 for his first win
in nearly 16 years.
He put on an electric show with leg-kicking, fist-throwing reactions
for his four straight birdies before LIV's largest and loudest
gallery of the season.
“I'm too old to be reacting like that because I think I pulled
something in my hip,” the 40-year-old Kim said to laughter. “But I
will say that was all the lows I went through in my life that I got
to dig out of. Every putt that went I felt the struggle and I was
overcoming it. It was therapeutic out there to fight through it and
come out on top.”
Those struggles include drug and alcohol addiction so severe Kim
considers it a minor miracle he is still alive. He is married with a
4-year-old daughter, Bella, who raced onto the 18th green at The
Grange Golf Club and into his arms.
“To be able to share this moment — even though Bella won’t
understand it, one day she will — and for her to be able to run on
the green and see her dad isn’t a loser was one of the most special
moments of my life,” Kim said.
LIV Golf took a chance on Kim in 2024 when he played as a wild card,
often finishing at the bottom of the small fields. Last season
wasn't much better, though he showed signs of the progress — 1%
better each day is his motto — late last season.
He was relegated out of the Saudi-funded league. He tied for fifth
in the Saudi International. He had to play a qualifying tournament
last month just to get another season on the LIV Tour.
Perhaps the final boost of confidence: Dustin Johnson signed Kim to
his 4 Aces team when Patrick Reed decided to leave the league.
The three-shot victory over Rahm was as big as any moment on LIV, at
a time when the league lost two of its bigger names in Brooks Koepka
and Reed. All that mattered to Kim was coming full circle.
“I know the mainstream media is not going to pick it up,” said Kim,
winning amid the Winter Olympics, the Daytona 500 and the NBA
All-Star Game.
“But for the people that do hear about it, I want to be a good
example,” he said. “I would say that I wasn’t the best person, the
best partner, the best whatever you want to call it, the best son I
could be when I was younger. But who I am today is a completely
different person. With God, my family, my sobriety being the key
things to my life, I can go as far as I want.”
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Anthony Kim of 4Aces GC reacts to his putt on the 18th green during
the final round of the LIV Golf Adelaide at Grange Golf Club in
Adelaide, Australia Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (Charles Laberge/LIV Golf
via AP)
Playing in black shorts — with black calf-length
socks and white shoes — in front of a large crowd on a sunny day at
The Grange, Kim caught up to Rahm after nine holes and pulled away.
Thousands of spectators followed behind him in the 18th fairway when
he capped off his amazing day.
It was his first victory since the 2010 Houston Open, the last of
his three titles on the PGA Tour. He had not finished higher than a
tie for 22nd on LIV, last week in Saudi Arabia. He won $4 million —
he made just over $4.6 million in his best season on the PGA Tour.
Rahm closed with a 71 and DeChambeau shot 74 on a day the average
score was 69.8.
Kim reached as high as No. 6 in the world in 2008, the year he
played in his only Ryder Cup at Valhalla and needed only 14 holes to
beat Sergio Garcia in singles. He moves to just outside the top 200
now that LIV gets world ranking points.
As big a win as it was for Kim, it was popular among the players he
beat.
“I cried,” Lucas Herbert said.
“Man, he was a gun,” said Marc Leishman, whose rookie season on the
PGA Tour coincided with Kim's peak years. "He almost had an aura
about him, somewhat for his golf, somewhat for his partying. I mean,
to see where he’s come from ... I’ve actually spoken to him a fair
bit over the last couple of years about a few of his experiences.
“It’s an unbelievable story, the place he got to and how close he
was to not being here. I’m not talking about in Adelaide, I’m
talking about not being on this planet.”
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