At one point in time, Anthony Kim was one of the most feared and ferocious competitors on the PGA Tour.
Twelve weeks is a long time to be sidelined with an injury in the professional game. Twelve months will knock you back a peg or two. Twelve years would be a total re-learning experience.
Like anything worth fighting for in life, though, AK’s fairytale comeback will take time. Judging by his first outing in Jeddah, a lot more than we had wished for.
Back in 2002, our Zimbabwe junior golf team qualified for the World Cup in Japan. Thirteen teams from sectional qualifying tournaments around the world made it to the final tournament that year. For the four of us Zimbos, just earning a spot at the tournament by winning the African Qualifier felt like we had already won the World Cup itself. That feeling had somewhat faded by the end of a long week on the course though, as we finished in 13th place.
Off the course was my favourite tournament-week experience of my playing career, though, as all 13 teams were put up in their own beachfront villas, draped in our respective national flags. Following a disastrous opening round on the course, Team Zim decided to explore the alternative options available in the players village.
Thankfully we came across a foosball table in the recreation centre and, with the competitive adrenaline still flowing, we decided to rather challenge the other countries to a knockout tournament unlike any other. Featuring a game which I personally find always reveals a person’s true character – and possibly how much time they spent at gaming arcades back home, instead of being on the driving range. With that being said, Team Zim surely entered this event as favourites and so the Inaugural Foosball World Cup kicked off.
Due to our dismal form on the golf course (and limited technical skills at foosball, too) a lot of trash-talking was required, in order to get into the minds of our competition. Our strategy, albeit born in a dark place of desperation, worked well in a few early rounds of foosball and with every fallen opponent, a more authentic form of confidence began to grow. That was until Team USA, featuring Luke List and Anthony Kim, stepped up to the perspex table-top.
Out-gunned by a combination of twitch-muscle-reflexes from Luke List in goal, and the side-stepping swagger of AK’s strikers upfront, we were knocked out of our second World Cup in a single week. This loss seemed to hurt even more, though, as up until this point, we had convinced ourselves that Team Zim had boarded the wrong plane from Harare that week and were in fact meant to be at the (real) Foosball World Championships.
Every day of that week, Team USA, Team South Africa and Team Zim entered the foosball arena after golf to slug it out and in Team Zim’s case, to laugh the pain away. We even found a nearby karaoke bar one night and I still remember AK singing at the top of his lungs in the shuttle all the way there (and back).
Refreshing the bottom half of the Jeddah leaderboard would have been impossible to imagine all those years ago. I personally believe that below the surface of this mythical creature of the game, dubbed the ‘Yeti of Golf’ since his disappearance, still lies that same swash-buckling kid who once-upon-a-time struck fear into the hearts of giants.
Now a proud girl-dad who lies in bed reading fairytales at night, I’ll be holding on to the hope that one day he gets to write the final line of his own story, so that his daughter gets to find out who her daddy truly is.
– This column first appeared in the April 2024 issue of Compleat Golfer magazine.
Photo: Francois Nel/Getty Images
