Anthony Kim made his long-awaited return to golf — and the expected rust showed.
Kim finished the first round in last place in the 54-player field in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in his LIV Golf debut after agreeing to a contract with the rebel golf league.
Kim’s round ended at 6-over, 14 shots behind leader Joaquin Niemann, and included one brutal shank on the fifth hole that led to a bogey.
LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman said on the CW broadcast that the shank was caused by a drone flying overhead that distracted Kim.
It is the kind of round one would expect when you have not played a professional event in 12 years. Kim disappeared from the sport and the public eye 12 years ago after dealing with an Achilles injury.
Kim, who was granted a year-long wild card by LIV, teed it up Friday with 2023 British Open champ Cam Smith and Graeme McDowell.
He will be in the individual competitions, but is not on any of LIV’s 13 four-man teams.
At the time, he was one of the most popular players in the sport and had risen as high as No. 6 in the Official World Golf Rankings.
His absence has been the one of the sport’s biggest mysteries for more than a decade.
LIV Golf featured Kim, now 38, on their social media channels warming up on the practice range in a plain white t-shirt.
“I think I missed the competitive part of the game — I wouldn’t just say it was golf,” Kim said in a video posted by LIV.
“Just being in the heat of the moment and having an opportunity to do something special, and I’m looking forward to having that opportunity again.”
Kim posted a video on his new Instagram account — that included a “Hello Haters” message — and featured old highlights, screenshots of articles that referred to him as “Golf’s Yeti” wondering where he went and videos of him with his wife and daughter.
He jokingly asked for a mulligan after hitting a wayward tee shot on the first hole of the pro-am on Thursday.