OPEN GNN RADIO MINI PLAYERPhil Mickelson has returned to the Masters Tournament after a year away, following his removal from the professional golf spotlight in the face of reported remarks he made regarding the Saudis and what turned out to be LIV Golf.
The three-time champion looks dramatically different compared to his last appearance. He has lost a ton of weight, returning, he says, to his high-school weight in hopes of maintaining competitive speed and good fitness. He also is wearing a different set of logos. He is no longer affiliated with almost all the brands that supported him previously.
Now Mickelson is left with wearing two logos that hold personal meaning for him, including a new logo on his hat, as well as the sunglasses he has worn in the latter years of his career.
The logo on Phil Mickelson's hat at the 2023 Masters is for his LIV Golf team, the Hy Flyers. Mickelson is a partial owner of the team (and perhaps even the LIV Golf concept), and the HF logo represents the four-person team he heads up on that tour.
That logo is different than the personal brand logo that Mickelson has used for years now, which is a silhouette of Mickelson jumping slightly into the air after he made the winning putt on the 72nd hole of the 2004 Masters Tournament -- the first of his three wins in the first major championship of the year.
The Hy Flyers logo just happens to run in contrast with the apparel sponsorship of his first- and second-round playing partner Si Woo Kim. Kim is sponsored by PGA Tour Apparel and is often seen in golf tournaments wearing shirts and sweaters with the PGA Tour wordmark and logo all over them. This, of course, has led people to think the South Korean is trolling Mickelson, but he's not. That's not to say the folks at Augusta National didn't have a sense of humor about this kind of thing, knowing Kim's sponsorship versus Phil's affiliation.
Meanwhile, Mickelson is playing great golf somewhat out of nowhere, looking to become the oldest Masters champion and win his seventh-career major.
