Anthony Kim is as close as golf has to a real Sasquatch.
The three-time PGA Tour winner hasn't competed inside the ropes in six years, since 2012, when a ruptured Achilles sidelined him for a planned 9-12 months. It was at that point which Kim decided never to return to professional golf, choosing to cash in on a Sports Illustrated-reported eight-figure personal insurance policy which would require him to never play high-level professional golf again.
In the last nearly seven years, Kim -- better known by his initials, AK -- has been occasionally sighted out in public, whether that's at parties in Las Vegas or in and around his hometown of Dallas. He became a restaurant investor in the growing Dallas food scene in 2016.
Every once in a while, rumors surface of Kim playing in big-money private games. At a minimum, we know AK has been playing some golf in the last seven years. A round of golf with him was auctioned off for $24,500 in 2015.
But every little morsel suggesting Anthony Kim could be as good as he once was is devoured by golf fans on social media, clamoring for his swagger to return to the pro game. So, when instructor James Ridyard posted a video of Kim swinging on the range on Tuesday, the golf world lit up again with hope of an AK comeback as successful as the recent one of Tiger Woods.
However, here's a rally killer: The video Ridyard posted isn't his, and it's two years old, from 2016. New Anthony Kim swing videos and sightings aren't floating around on the Internet today. It's old material.
So, we'll still have to revel in his two PGA Tour wins in 2008, including a dynamic appearance in the 2008 Ryder Cup, as well his last victory in 2010.
We'd love to see now-33-year-old Anthony Kim play professional golf again. He's probably still got it. But there's no new clues today suggesting that could be happening.
