Let’s mince no words here: TPC Sawgrass is a literal swamp. Before opening in the 1980, Pete Dye’s tricked-up masterpiece in Ponte Vedra Beach that hosts The Players was a 400-some acre swath of unkept swampland.
Phil Mickelson’s button-down shirt was actually a brilliant marketing ploy
TPC Sawgrass is a literal swamp, Phil’s financial-broker button down seemed wildly out of place, and made for jokes online.
Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Take a spin around the grounds and you’ll still see that in the course’s DNA today — the unique terrain is actually part of the reason the famous island-green par-3 17th hole exists. Point being, a six-hour outdoor day in May on North Florida swampland is quite possibly the last place where any sane soul would want to be in a damn dress shirt.
“Nobody does kind of slightly overweight middle-aged guy better than me — and this says exactly who I am.”
Seemingly undeterred, Phil Mickelson achieved the 48-year-old dad singularity by prancing around Dye’s hellswamp looking like your company’s financial controller. The goofs and gags about a professional golfer rocking a spread-collar look in such a locale are justifiable, wildly true, and easy retweet fodder. I mean, hell, even Mickelson is leaning into it himself:
“Nobody does kind of slightly overweight middle-aged guy better than me — and this says exactly who I am,” he told reporters after Thursday’s opening round.
Here’s the thing: the look of a dad toting around one of the hottest, muggiest, swampiest golf course known to man in a dress shirt? That was the whole point.
Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Mickelson just launched an endorsement deal with shirt company Mizzen+Main, which also gave him equity in the relatively young company. The company sells itself on button-down type shirts that are lightweight, breathable, and not hell-on-Earth to wear, so there’s actually not a better place to test your product than a Floridian golf hellswamp in May. Add to that that golf fans skew, Mickelson’s ideal, sweaty dad physique, and that the one of the dude’s most-know trademarks is a hat from a Big Four accounting firm? It’s a marketing ploy made in heaven.
Only one problem: It’s a two-day opening show for the button-downs. Mickelson is going to miss the cut badly at The Players. He’s a handful of spots out of dead last at the time of this writing.
Since we’re in the twilight of Mickelson’s career, uh, here’s hoping Mizzen+Main isn’t the new Volvik.
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