Golf Channel Podcast with Rex & Lav · Golf Channel

Anthony Kim wins to complete the most extraordinary comeback ... ever?

·52 min·4 clips

Anthony Kim, after 16 years and battling addiction, beats Bryson DeChambeau and John Rahm in a stunning LIV Adelaide victory.

The lead gets hijacked immediately. Rex and Lav say their usual signature-event rhythm starts with the PGA Tour result, but Anthony Kim beating Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm in Australia blows that plan up. It sounds almost scripted, which is part of the problem. They walk through the whole weird stack: former rising star, 40 years old, 16 years without a win, 11 years mostly gone while dealing with injuries, addiction, and mental illness, then two LIV years without a top 10 or a point. The Hollywood line works because the result is that strange. From there, the hosts keep poking at the same question: how much of this belongs to Kim, and how much belongs to the players who failed to finish it? DeChambeau takes the first hit. His final-round stumble fits the larger letdown, since the expected heavyweight finish turned into two elite names leaving the door open. Rahm gets the tougher treatment. Rex keeps coming back to how baffling it is that a generational talent, once right next to Scottie Scheffler in the top-player conversation, still has not won on LIV. They wave off the money argument. This is about competition, not contracts, and Rahm's steady top-10 run comes off as impressive but strangely unfinished. Kim's win holds up anyway. The hosts treat the comeback as extraordinary, but they cannot leave the blank space alone. Where did he go? Why did he leave? Why come back now? A short documentary will not do it for them. Lav jokes that he wants episodes, then nudges it toward a multi-part version, because Kim has been back long enough and still has not really filled in the middle. The tone stays dry instead of syrupy. Even when they admire how absurd the win is, they drag it back to leaderboard context, competitive standards, and the reporting that still needs doing. The close relaxes a bit, with a self-deprecating media-day shot on 17 giving it a clubhouse feel before they send listeners toward more Golf Channel coverage.

As heard by us

A comeback story this strange almost explains itself.

The episode works because it treats Anthony Kim's win in Australia as a weird sports story, not a tidy redemption arc. Rex and Lav spend time on the 40-year-old former rising star who disappeared for 11 years because of injuries, addiction, and mental illness, then came back to…

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Why you'd press play

For the day Anthony Kim turned disbelief into a leaderboard result.

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