MIA Files: Anthony Kim Wrestles With Playing...Or Cashing Out

I'd love to witness Alan Shipnuck's fight with SI Accounting when he turns in the various Ritz Carlton and strip club receipts in his effort to track down Anthony Kim in Dallas, La Quinta or somewhere else.

There are many fun anecdotes in this must-read, but I'll just clip my favorites for safe keeping.

From his SI story previewing the Ryder Cup, where Kim was such a huge American figure in 2008.

In some circles, Kim has become golf's Voldemort -- a name that dare not be spoken. According to Knost, Kim played a casual round this spring with journeyman Casey Wittenberg. Approached at a Web.com event in July, Wittenberg recoiled at the mere mention of Kim's name. "I'm not going to comment," Wittenberg said. "He's a great friend of mine. Sorry, I know you're just doing your job."

Don't feel for him too much there Casey...

Regarding Kim's apparent dilemma...

The answer very well may lie in an insurance policy Kim has against a career-ending injury. An IMG source pegged its value at $10 million, tax-free. Kim's friend, who has had financial discussions with him, says, "It's significantly north of that. Not quite 20, but close. That is weighing on him, very much so. He's trying to weigh the risk of coming back. The way he's phrased it to me is, 'If I take one swing on Tour, the policy is voided.'"

He does still play golf...

Over the summer Kim hit balls a handful of times at TPC Craig Ranch. (No one there has seen him on the course itself, and Kim's friend in Dallas says, "I couldn't tell you the last time he played a full round of golf.") He recently got his hair cut for the first time in eight months, but it still falls a couple of inches below his shoulders, which may explain why after a visit to Craig Ranch in July one staffer described him as looking like "a hobo." He arrived with five friends, including a young woman who was not dressed for golf. "She wasn't wearing much of anything," says the TPC employee.

He's taking a stand against the PGA Tour! The same guy who got a sponsor's invite to play the Bob Hope in his hometown of La Quinta, but then passed on the event when he became successful. That tour!

"He doesn't like where the Tour is heading," says his friend in Dallas. "He feels like it's become even more corporate, that the fans and the Tour itself do not support his style. He has no love for the Tour officials. He was tired of them hassling him for every little thing and fining him for stupid stuff."

And this about sums it all up...

In April, Kim put his Xanadu in Dallas on the market for $2.2 million and has been staying with a girlfriend while he assesses his next move. He tools around town in a Rolls-Royce Ghost. It had been flossed out with custom rims, but recently he reinstalled the stock wheels. "He wants to be more incognito," his friend says, without irony.