Same golf brain, one mustached kangaroo: The Anthony Kim-Grant Bennett partnership

Anthony Kim's first win in 16 years at LIV Golf Adelaide may have felt like a made-for-TV movie, but it wasn't scripted or sudden. It was the result of a year of consistent grind: a player who shows up every day ready to work, win or lose, and a caddie who gets his golf brain in a way that makes everything click. That Sunday in Australia, Kim fired a flawless 9-under 63, overtaking Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau to win by three shots. The back-nine charge from Kim stemmed from months of building trust with his caddie Grant Bennett.

“He grinds harder than anyone,” Bennett said of Kim, the new 4Aces GC star who’ll turn 41 in June. 

Bennett never planned on caddying for a living. He took a run at Q-School, didn’t get through, and when his old friend at his home club in Dallas, Danny Lee, needed a last-minute loop in the fall of 2020, he accepted. Lee played well right away, including a solid Korn Ferry finals push on medical extension, and Bennett quickly realized that a caddying job beat grinding mini-tours for peanuts.

“I can make a little bit more cash doing this, and I’m having a good time,” he said.

In 2024, Bennett and Lee split after three LIV Golf events together. When back in his home course in Dallas playing, as he put it, “way too much golf,” his phone rang. It was Kim. Ryan Todey, who was Kim's caddie for the first phase of his comeback and one of his best friends, had vouched for Bennett.

Kim’s call was straight to the point: “Hey, I’m looking for a caddie. Let’s do a three-week trial and see how it goes.” 

Bennett’s first week with Kim came at LIV Golf Hong Kong in 2025. Despite Kim not playing well, the duo was already in sync. Same golf brain. Kim texted him right after their first round together: “The job’s yours if you want it.” Bennett couldn’t reply fast enough. 

“We were thinking about golf the same way,” the former Wichita State University golfer said. “We get along so well off the golf course, too. That just makes things super easy.” 

“I just felt like we were thinking about golf the same way,” Kim recalled. “I was still not very good, but I could tell that he was going to work hard regardless of if I played good or not. Not everyone has a good attitude every day they come to the course, and that's all I needed to see ... It was a pretty easy decision.” 

On the course, their dynamic is simple. “He kind of likes when we’re reading greens. We both read the putt and then he says, ‘You see this?’ We see things very similarly, so more times than not we pretty much see the same thing,” Bennett explained.

Kim, a former Ryder Cup star who holds the record for most birdies in a round at Augusta National (11 in the second round in 2009), is looking for reassurance on what he already knows. “I’m really there just to confirm – basically say, ‘This is going left, it’s gonna break right here,” Bennett said.

On the Sunday six weeks ago when Kim captivated the golf world in Adelaide, it was a typical day for the duo of Bennett and Kim. “Obviously we had a great Sunday, but for us it was same old, same old: the same process. Here’s the wind, here’s the yardage, ‘What are you thinking?’ and then we go into the shot like that,” said Bennett. 

When Kim’s sure of a decision, Bennett lets him own it. He knows who’s hitting the shot. 

“If I’m pretty sure about a decision, he's OK with whatever decision I make,” Kim said. “Because at the end of the day, I'm pulling the trigger. So just like anything else, I have to take ownership of my decisions. But having him help me has been a tremendous asset.” 

After the win in Adelaide, Kim and Bennett both got a tattoo to commemorate the historic victory – a kangaroo (to represent Australia) with boxing gloves. However, their tattoos have one distinct difference: Bennett’s kangaroo, like the man himself, has a mustache.