He Was Compared to Tiger Woods. So Why Did He Walk Away From Golf?

NYT SPORT: He Was Compared to Tiger Woods. So Why Did He Walk Away From Golf?
By Andrew Keh
Section: Sports
Source: New York Times

Is it OK for an athlete — or anyone, really — to have an extraordinary gift and not use it? The golfer Anthony Kim apparently decided, emphatically, that it is.

A young man is walking briskly across a stretch of mowed grass, on his way to someplace entirely new. Hundreds of people are clapping as he passes. They are hollering his name. The young man lowers his head, tugs off his white cap and holds it in the air. A smile flickers across his face, then disappears.

This is Anthony Kim. It is 2008, and he is 22 years old and one shot away from earning his first win in a professional golf tournament. When he reaches the 18th green, he pauses, not only to line up his final putt, but also, he later reveals, to let a simple fact swirl into his consciousness: My life is about to change. Kim taps the ball, and it clunks into the cup. He punches the air twice, screams “Yes!” twice. He takes a bow.

He is $1.2 million richer.

“That walk up 18 was the best feeling in my entire life,” he says later that day.

“I want to recreate that as many times as possible now.”

The feeling would prove fleeting. Four years after that first win, after more rousing victories that established him as one of golf’s biggest stars, Kim took a sudden leave from the game. Injuries were hampering his play, and he needed time to heal. But beyond his physical troubles, some invisible, unknowable forces must have been churning inside him.

Because he never came back.

Published Date: January 26, 2023 at 02:00AM

Read More at: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/26/sports/golf/anthony-kim-tiger-woods.html

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