It was 14 years and 2 months ago when a 24-year-old Anthony Kim sealed his third PGA Tour title a week before heading to Augusta as one of the favorites for the 2010 Masters.
Kim triumphed at the Shell Houston Open courtesy of a playoff win over Vaughn Taylor to move up to 14th in the world rankings and look more and more likely to become one of his generation’s best players.
It was his third win in three years and he would go on to finish 3rd at the Masters behind Phil Mickelson and Lee Westwood to record his best ever Major finish.
Yet just two years later he played his final PGA Tour event and wasn’t seen until 12 years later, when he came out of the golfing wilderness and joined the LIV Golf League.
Kim, who has been open on the struggles he encountered during his time away, has played in five LIV Golf events so far this year, with a best finish of 50th-place coming in Hong Kong where he shot the best round of his return – a five-under-par 65 – in the final round.
He followed that up with two rounds in Adelaide before withdrawing and then placing 52nd in Singapore the following week. Kim has had a month off to work on his game before what will be a return to a happy hunting ground this week.
Houston hosts its first event on the LIV Golf schedule at The Golf Club of Houston, which was the venue for the PGA Tour’s Houston Open from 2003 to 2019.
Kim tamed it in 2010 with rounds of 66, 69, 69 and 70 for a 12-under-par total, and with 14 competitive rounds under his belt this year he’ll certainly be hoping for his best LIV Golf finish to date.
Ian Poulter’s last win also came at the Golf Club of Houston in 2018
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The Golf Club of Houston is also the scene of Ian Poulter‘s last victory, which came at the 2018 Houston Open thanks to a playoff win over Beau Hossler, which got him into the Masters field the following week.
Fellow Englishman and LIV Golfer Paul Casey won here in 2009, while Phil Mickelson triumphed in 2011 and Matt Jones, who plays for Cameron Smith‘s Ripper GC team, was the victor in 2014.
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