What Should LIV Golf Do With Anthony Kim?

Anthony Kim's debut season in the LIV Golf League is finished, with the three-time PGA Tour winner playing in 11 events this campaign after a 12-year spell away from the sport.

The former Ryder Cup star managed a best finish of 36th in his penultimate event at The Greenbrier and he ended the season 56th out of 57 players to have completed at least three events.

Kim has been one of two 'wildcards' this year - golfers who play as individuals in order to bolster the field up from 52 (13 teams of 4) to 54. He finished inside the Drop Zone but was not one of the LIV Golfers to be relegated due to his wildcard status, with LIV now having the chance to assess whether to keep him on as a wildcard, assign him to a team or drop him from the league.

So, what should they do with him? Four of our writers discuss...

Nick Bonfield

What should LIV Golf do with Anthony Kim? The honest answer is I don't care. 

His signing was such a clear publicity stunt that I had no desire to tune in to see how he was getting on, and that apathy has remained throughout the course of the season.

It's an indictment of a tour if someone can be signed off the street, finish no better than 36th (in limited-field events), come 45th or worse eight times in ten starts and still earn almost a million dollars. 

While it's nice to see Kim playing golf again after some turbulent times, and I have no ill will towards him whatsoever, he represents everything that's wrong with LIV Golf.

Elliott Heath

Kim joined the league saying he hopes to "bust everyone's ass" and in truth he's probably been surprised by just how far off his game has been this year.

He's definitely improved and surely will continue to get closer to where he hopes to, but the idea of him winning again still seems to be some way away. He might not even manage a top-10 next year either but LIV will almost certainly keep him as a wildcard or push for one of its teams to find a place for him. 

Why? Because he brings numbers. His documentary with David Feherty has almost 300,000 views on YouTube and his episode of the Fairway to Heaven podcast has 18,000 views at the time of writing, which has only been beaten by Greg Norman (24k), Jon Rahm (24k), Tyrrell Hatton (22k) and Phil Mickelson (53k) this year, with many of the episodes getting between 2-5k views.

His story is also very inspiring if you haven't heard from him this year, with his comeback from addiction and rehab and his new-found happiness as a father a lovely story. While his golf hasn't been elite yet, it's been great to have him back in the game.

The signing was clearly for publicity and that's exactly what it has brought LIV, which they'll surely want to keep.

LIV has been very good to Anthony Kim and to just drop him after one season would be a big surprise. Norman surely knew he wasn't going to be a contender straight away and will be patient with him. While perhaps unlikely, the story of Anthony Kim winning again would be a big one - and LIV will want it to be a part of that.

He is signed with Extracurricular, which sponsors the 4Aces GC team so he could potentially be a good fit there. If not, he'll stay on as a wildcard.

Matt Cradock

Since his return to action it's safe to say that Anthony Kim hasn't set the world alight with his results on the LIV Golf circuit. 

However, it's his first competitive season back following a 12-year lay-off and, checking out his social media, the American seems to be grinding harder than ever and appears to have found the love for the game again.

What should LIV do with him? Well, I'd imagine they're hoping he has one big performance to try and justify his place in the league but, I think if he were to stay on as a wildcard for another year, then that would be sensible. 

It would allow him to continue playing without the pressure of the team and individual aspect dumped on him. 

Overall, I was pleased to see him return to golf, but unless he attends US Open qualifying or tries to get into a Major, I still can't really take the return that seriously.

Jonny Leighfield

What LIV should do is relegate Anthony Kim. What they will likely do is keep him on as a wildcard again or watch him sign for one of the teams.

As my colleagues have pointed out, Kim's signing was more about creating publicity than immediately strengthening the competition. However, LIV is ultimately supposed to be a business, not a charity, and the American didn't score a point in 11 events. 

Obviously, he hasn't played a lot of golf over the past 12 years so the likelihood of him quickly returning to the same level as before were always going to be pretty slim. 

But if the league wants to be taken seriously and not seen as an exhibition circuit, which is the stick many critics beat it with, LIV can't be taking on golfers in the same or similar situations to Kim for more than a season or two. 

Absolutely nothing against the guy, but the bottom line is that Kim hasn't played well enough to warrant a spot in what is an extremely limited roster next season, and his continued presence while underperforming undermines the sporting integrity of the league.