Anthony Kim Earns Major Award Nomination for His Remarkable Golf Comeback
LIV GOLF ADELAIDE, Anthony Kim of 4Aces GC celebrates victory during Round 4 of the LIV Golf Adelaide at The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, Sunday, February 15, 2026. NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY ADELAIDE SA AUSTRALIA PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxAUSxNZLxPNGxFIJxVANxSOLxTGA Copyright: xMATTxTURNERx 20260215174595983810
LIV GOLF ADELAIDE, Anthony Kim of 4Aces GC celebrates victory during Round 4 of the LIV Golf Adelaide at The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, Sunday, February 15, 2026. NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY ADELAIDE SA AUSTRALIA PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxAUSxNZLxPNGxFIJxVANxSOLxTGA Copyright: xMATTxTURNERx 20260215174595983810
Anthony Kim’s Adelaide comeback has reached another big stage. He has officially been nominated for the Best Comeback Athlete award at the 2026 ESPYS, ESPN announced on 25th June.
The nomination comes after Kim's emotional victory at LIV Golf Adelaide in February.
In Adelaide, he erased a five-shot final-round deficit with a bogey-free 9-under 63 to claim his first professional title in almost 16 years. He beat Jon Rahm by three shots. Bryson DeChambeau, who'd shared the third-round lead with Rahm, could only manage a 2-over 74 and slipped to a tie for third at 17-under.
"That was all the lows that I went through in my life that I got to dig out of," Kim, who won for the first time since 2010, later described his final round in Adelaide, as per LIV Golf.
"Every putt that went in, I felt the struggle, and I was overcoming it. It was therapeutic out there to fight through it and come out on top.”
WESTFIELD, IN - AUGUST 17: LIV golfer Anthony Kim plays his tee shot on the 2nd hole during the final round of LIV Golf Indianapolis on August 17, 2025, at The Club at Chatham Hills in Westfield, Indiana. Photo by Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire GOLF: AUG 17 LIV Golf Indianapolis EDITORIAL USE ONLY Icon25081757
WESTFIELD, IN - AUGUST 17: LIV golfer Anthony Kim plays his tee shot on the 2nd hole during the final round of LIV Golf Indianapolis on August 17, 2025, at The Club at Chatham Hills in Westfield, Indiana. Photo by Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire GOLF: AUG 17 LIV Golf Indianapolis EDITORIAL USE ONLY Icon25081757
Kim's fellow nominees each have their own case for the award too.
Savy King, a defender for Angel City FC, collapsed on the field during a match in May 2025 after suffering a cardiac event and needed open-heart surgery. She spent ten months in cardiac rehab before returning to play.
San Francisco 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey played just four games in 2024 while battling Achilles tendinitis and a PCL injury. Then the running back came back in 2025 to start all 19 games (including playoffs). He already won the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year award.
Kyndal Stowers was medically retired from Baylor after a series of concussions. She sat out a full year before transferring to Texas A&M, where she helped lead the Aggies to the NCAA volleyball Final Four.
Fan voting for the Best Comeback Athlete category is currently open through 15th July. The show will air live from the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York on Wednesday, July 15, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and the ESPN App, with comedian Marcello Hernández hosting.
From World No. 6 to Nearly Losing Everything: One of the Most Inspiring Golf Stories
Kim was once one of golf’s brightest young stars. He has three PGA Tour wins, reached No. 6 in the world in his early 20s, and was part of the winning U.S. Ryder Cup team in 2008.
Then everything stopped. A ruptured left Achilles in 2012, followed by shoulder, hand and back surgeries, pushed him out of the game for more than a decade. He also fought addiction and mental health issues during that time.
When he returned in 2024, it was not smooth. LIV Golf gave him a wildcard chance, but he had to fight for every step after that. He later earned his spot again through LIV Golf Promotions and joined 4Aces GC at the start of the season.
The turning point, by Kim's telling, was his wife, Emily, and their daughter, Bella. He has said repeatedly that rebuilding his life mattered more than rebuilding his golf swing. Fortunately, the two ended up going hand in hand.
Watching Bella run onto the 18th green in Adelaide and see her father win, he said, was one of the most special moments of his life, and a chance for her to one day understand that her dad "isn't a loser."
"I want to inspire people," Kim said after his win, per Sky Sports. "I told my wife this: the only way I get to reach the amount of people I want to reach is by winning."
Written by
Md Saife Fida