Cult golf star Anthony Kim plots return after leaving the PGA Tour 12 years ago

Cult golf star Anthony Kim plots return after leaving the PGA Tour 12 years ago

The legend of Anthony Kim seems headed for another chapter.

The brash and popular golf star is set to return to the professional ranks after leaving the PGA Tour around 12 years ago, Golf.com was first to report.

Kim has been negotiating with the PGA Tour and LIV Golf over the past several months with next steps being discussed as he eyes a return this spring.

One of the holdups for Kim, 38, is that a $10 million insurance policy will be voided once he returns.

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LIV Golf — after initially showing little interest in Kim — has offered him one-year contract that would cover the $10 million and still allow him to earn prize money and cash in on sponsorships.

LIV’s stance on Kim changed thanks to the urging of some of its top players, including Dustin Johnson, Golf.com reported.

Kim broke onto the tour in 2006 and then won three tournaments between 2008-10 as he rose as high as No. 6 in the world.

Kim, while a divisive figure among fellow pros, was a key part of US teams that won the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup in 2008 and 2009. He still owns the record for most birdies in a Masters round, when he carded 11 during the second round at Augusta in 2009.

He was briefly a pop culture icon with an appearance on “The Tonight Show” and a friendship with Michael Jordan.

Kim then underwent Achilles surgery in June 2012 that was expected to sideline him for a year.

However, there have only been rare sights of him since with reports surfacing that he had given up the game entirely.

Tiger Woods walks with Anthony Kim. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

Eric Larson, Kim’s caddie from his professional days, told the New York Times in a feature last year, that he talked with Kim about LIV Golf and tried using the new tour as a way to persuade him to get back in the game.

“He goes, ‘I don’t know. I really don’t know.’” Larson told the paper.

“I said, ‘Come on, man, get the old clubs out. Go out there and have some fun.’ And he starts laughing at me. He goes, ‘That’s what everybody wants me to do!’”

Golf.com reported has been playing more frequently ahead of his return, ready to provide what “everybody wants.”

This article first appeared on The New York Postand was reproduced with permission