Anthony Kim's circus act and Scotland's municipal golf fight
In this week's newsletter, the prospect of Anthony Kim's first pro round in 12 years, and public outcry against cash-strapped Scottish officials' attempts to close several municipal courses.
On top of the longform essays, which I’ll continue to publish once or twice a month, I’ll be offering a weekly wrap every Tuesday on the stories that have been catching the eye from money and business in the great game of golf.
This week:
Anthony Kim becomes a circus attraction
The battle for the future of Scotland’s municipal golf courses
Thank you for being here. The Wedge is a reader-supported publication. If you enjoy these articles and would like to support independent media focused on the business, money and mystique of the world’s greatest game, please consider a monthly or annual subscription or gift a subscription to someone who might value this content.
Anthony Kim is back
It’s hard to recall now, from a decade and a half of distance, how big Anthony Kim was circa 2008-2010.
This was Tiger time, but Kim was the next big thing; he won three PGA Tour titles and starred at a Ryder Cup, so there’s a strong argument he had taken a step beyond next big thing.
But Kim’s last round on the PGA Tour came at the Wells Fargo Championship in 2012, when he WD’ed after the first round.
Actually, his last three pro tournaments, in the spring and early summer of 2012, all ended in unsightly Day 1 withdrawals.
According to a handful of reports over a handful of years — and bear in mind, all this is second-, third- and fourth-hand, because as far as media is concerned, Kim has all but disappeared off the face of the planet for a decade — there was surgery on an Achilles tendon which would have needed up to a year of recovery.
And then… nothing.
The last post on his Twitter page dates from August 2010.
Almost two years after Wells Fargo, in 2014, the Golf Channel carried a report that stated that Kim, far from working towards a comeback, was playing no golf at all, and in 2019, a Golf.com article quoted him as saying that his game was “non-existent”.
Amidst all this, there has been plenty of talk about insurance payments.
Even this week, the Daily Mirror confidently declared that:
“Kim received an insurance payment after undergoing surgery, but in order to qualify for the financial benefits, he had to quit golf.”
and ESPN got even more specific, revealing the value of the policy:
“Kim would void an insurance policy from his previous playing days that is worth an estimated $10 million if he returns to a pro circuit, according to multiple reports.”
Who, actually, really, knows?
Certainly not me.
But it will be interesting, no doubt, to see how Kim gets on if and when he tees it up at Royal Greens Golf resort outside Jeddah in Saudi Arabia this weekend.
He’s not part of any LIV Golf team, instead taking up one of the wild card slots — there will be two for each tournament this year, and there’s no clarity yet over whether Kim will be part of LIV for one tournament, or several.
For him to complete a “Phoenix from the Flames” style return and actually nail down a spot on a LIV team, well, it would be one of the greatest comebacks in the history of sports.
For now, the interest is something like that of a 19th century circus freak-show, with thousands of digital rubberneckers (me included) staring from afar and hoping for some drama to unfold.
LIV Golf commissioner Greg Norman, grabbing a microphone, welcomed him back, although it must be said that choosing the present tense for the word “oozes” pushes the boundary of credibility.
Said Norman:
“He oozes incredible talent. The world has seen it in the past and now it is an honor as commissioner of LIV Golf to give the opportunity for this star to be reborn. Welcome back and to the LIV Golf family, mate.”
For everyone who’s forgotten what Kim was capable of, here’s his approach at the first hole of his iconic Ryder Cup singles match against (now LIV colleague) Sergio Garcia at Valhalla in 2008, which Kim won 5&4.
Scotland’s public courses might win the battle but lose the war
Bunkered, the top class golf media business based in Glasgow, Scotland, is assisting in the campaign to save one of the country’s increasingly embattled public courses.
Dalmuir is, per the website of the local West Dunbartonshire Council, which operates the venue:
one of the finest 18 hole municipal golf courses in the west of Scotland. The parkland layout, near Clydebank, measures over 5,000 yards, with varied hole design and a number hills offering fantastic views over West Dunbartonshire.
But no matter how fine it might be, or how fantastic its views, Dalmuir’s days could be numbered.
As reported by the local media outlet the Glasgow Times, the income West Dunbartonshire Council get to run the club, including funding from the Scottish central government, is “significantly lower than the cost of delivering its services”.
The council notified golfers recently that it was considering reducing the club to a 12-hole course or closing it completely.
Dalmuir is four years away from celebrating the 100th anniversary of its opening in 1928.
A change.org petition, set up by Clydebank Overtoun Golf Club, for which Dalmuir is home, is closing in on its target of 7500 signatures.
The battle to save Dalmuir comes just a week after Hollandbush golf course, operated by nearby South Lanarkshire Council, was given a reprieve at a local council budget meeting.
The closure of two other Scottish municipal courses, at Caird Park in Dundee further north, has also been considered by local government authorities.
Local government finances in the UK is not exactly a specialist subject for many — and certainly not your business, money and mystique of golf writer — but the recent trend has been clear enough for anyone willing to scratch the surface.
Birmingham, the second largest city in the nation, declared bankruptcy last year.
Just this week, a YouTube documentary by the popular underbelly-of-travel vlogger Bald & Bankrupt was watched more than 1.4 million times in its first few days online.
The film visited Plymouth, Weston-super-Mare, Birmingham and Horton, four regional British cities which have fallen on hard times, and revealed the extent to which once-great towns and cities across a once-great nation have been allowed to descend into dereliction, with cash-strapped local governments unable to prevent it.
North of the border in Scotland, Hollandbush golf course was saved by the establishment of a £1 million so-called “Community Fightback Fund”, which will keep community halls and other council-operated venues — including the golf course — ticking over until somebody can be convinced to take them over on a permanent basis.
With South Lanarkshire Council’s funding gap revealed to be more than £20 million, Hollandbush’s future is safe for just one year before a new operator will have to be found to keep it going.
It appears obvious, then, that public, municipal courses will have to find some way of going private or becoming profitable, or ideally both — and that’s a challenge which won’t be easy to overcome.
That will, of course, be a great sadness to many golfers for whom these courses are their only chance to tee it up.
As the Bunkered reporter Michael McEwan said in a passionate plea for petition signatures on X:
“Dalmuir, just like all the other municipal courses, exists to make golf affordable and accessible to everybody.
“You take them away and you risk making golf a sport that can only be played by those who can afford it. That’s just not right.”
Thank you for being here. The Wedge is a reader-supported publication. If you enjoy these articles and would like to support independent media focused on the business, money and mystique of the world’s greatest game, please consider a monthly or annual subscription or gift a subscription to someone who might value this content.