Charlie Woods will face Anthony Kim when he returns to the professional game….
Anthony Kim’s return to the professional ranks is almost assured for this week’s LIV Golf Jeddah event, according to LIV Golf. Since his last appearance on the PGA Tour in 2012, Kim has evolved into a legendary figure. The mysterious LIV commercial, which debuted on Monday and has a few brief shots of someone who looks to be Kim, added to the mystery.
Swing enthusiasts will be able to identify one component of Kim’s move—the clamp down on the grip—even though the footage doesn’t say much about her return.
With almost every club in his bag—typically three or four inches—Kim, a three-time winner while competing on the PGA Tour, stood out. Brooke Henderson is among the few players that can execute this uncommon feat in golf. Tiger Woods pointed out this unusual aspect of Kim’s relocation in the same year.
In October 2008, Woods and Kim were at a Nike Golf clinic when Woods remarked, “He’s the only player I’ve ever seen that actually plays pretty much the entire bag choked up.” The ball isn’t hit as far offline, and it does offer a great deal of control. With that swing, you hit the ball really straight.
The dictator possessed a straightforward, repeatable swing with minimal moving elements when he was at his best. Kim kept things simple and favored playing with feel rather than getting bogged down in intricate swing concepts.
Kim said to the small group, “I just do whatever feels right.” “That sounds really simple and dumb, and it is,” the speaker admits.
Maybe not stupid. According to Tiger, “It provides so much more control” when the grip is choked down.
Woods remarked of gripping down, “It’s amazing that a lot of amateurs don’t try and do that.” “They prefer to hold the club like they would in baseball, with the pinky off the club, because some pros have taught them that you get more whip at the bottom if you grip the very end of the club.”
Maintaining the club at the end of the grip to produce whip is problematic because it produces “flash speed,” which is challenging to time properly, according to Woods. Kim, on the other hand, found the center of the face more frequently by clamping down. Woods stated, “You control your distances by hitting the ball consistently and flush every time.”
Kim remarked, “Trying grasping the club normally doesn’t feel right.” “I used all of my dad’s clubs growing up, just like Tiger did. Since they were chopped down and far too heavy to stay me, I began holding them approximately three to four inches more compact.
Kim’s action serves as a nice reminder that, for some people, exercising greater control to strike the center of the face will yield better results than exerting all of your energy to pick up an extra mile per hour. This is especially important in a time where speed is prioritized above all else.
This is the full, very entertaining clinic that you can view below. Despite our skepticism about swing analysis, the film highlights Kim’s magnetic appeal. We can count on him to at least dish out a few one-liners this week, similar to this one from the clinic sixteen years ago, should he not be totally back on form.
