Anthony Kim returns to golf

Professional golfer Anthony Kim made a surprise return to the game this week after a 10-year absence. The golf world has long speculated about why he left, and his sudden return is just as mysterious.

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

After nearly 12 years away from the game, golfer Anthony Kim is returning to the green. He teed up for his first professional tournament in more than a decade on Friday at a LIV Golf event in Saudi Arabia. The return ends a long stretch of, if not quite a reclusive retreat from the game, enough of an absence that Sports Illustrated once called Kim golf’s yeti. Injuries stretched into years and years and years away from competition and the spotlight. And Kim, who started his career so promising, seemed to be done for good until now. Andy Johnson is the founder of Fried Egg Golf, and he joins us now to discuss this unexpected comeback. Andy, welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

ANDY JOHNSON: Hey, Scott. Thanks so much for having me on.

DETROW: So this is something that a lot of the golf world is excited about, has been paying attention to. But I don’t know if non-golf people know Anthony Kim’s backstory as much. Can you explain just what was going on and where he was at his career when he went away and why he went away?

JOHNSON: Yeah. Anthony Kim, in the late 2000s, early 2010s, was one of golf’s most promising phenoms. He had a flair. He was really fun to watch play, and he had extraordinary talent. He won a handful of times. He won the 2008 Wachovia Championship, the 2008 AT&T National, and then the last one of his career was the Shell Houston Open in 2010. He was becoming one of the most popular players in an era that was kind of the end of Tiger Woods’ dominance over the sport. So he had become one of these names that were thrown around as the next big thing.

So in 2012, he had some injuries that kind of forced him to step away from the game. And then, you know, we really haven’t seen him since. The…