Wild prints and trendy outfits are making the Masters the center of the golf fashion universe

AUGUSTA, Georgia – In a place where green jackets never go out of style, the sometimes wild, often trendy and always interesting fashion sense of those who play at Augusta National has become a viral subplot for the competition at the Masters this week.

Start with Jason Day, marching alongside Tiger Woods in the opening round, wearing baggy Malbon pants that harken back to the baggy shorts of Michigan basketball’s Fab Five era. Then, on Friday, the former PGA champion donned a white vest from the brand that said in bold letters across the belly: “Malbon Golf Championship.”

“It looks like he’s using a billboard,” joked one customer as he watched from the shadows.

More than any golf venue, the Masters is the place to see and be seen, and that goes for the players and their sponsors. So, in recent years, the companies that supply their equipment have started doing everything in the first full week of April.

Justin Thomas, Erik van Rooyen and Akshay Bhatia are ambassadors for Greyson Clothiers, which bills itself as a lifestyle brand complete with membership options. Greyson is the brainchild of Charlie Schaefer, who previously served as senior vice president of design at Ralph Lauren and who launched the brand in 2015 at the Masters.

Viktor Hovland, who is competing again this year, has an apparel contract with J. Lindberg. And when it comes to Masters apparel, the Swedish clothing company has thrown in some bold prints that often pay homage to the home of the year’s first major.

That includes the black shirt with the giant azalea on the front that Hovland wore this week. The azalea, a particular species of rhododendron, is almost synonymous with Augusta Nacional and can be found along the entire route.

Hovland said during last year’s PGA Championship at Oak Hill that he generally uses more muted colors.

“I wear a lot of gray and black and that’s it,” he said. Then, when asked about attire on the course, he responded simply, “Well, J. Lindeberg, they give me this stuff and pay me money to do it, so I just show up and wear whatever they want me to wear.”

In other words: they put it out, he puts it out.

Of course, there are still many players sponsored by major sports apparel companies.

Rory McIlroy still wears Nike, as do Scottie Scheffler, the best player in the world, and Brooks Koepka, the current PGA champion. Rising star Ludvig Aberg is among those wearing Adidas gear, and former Masters champion Jordan Spieth is Under Armour’s best-known ambassador, reportedly earning eight figures annually on a deal through the 2029 season.

As part of the agreement, Under Armor also donates $1 million annually to the Jordan Spieth Family Foundation.

But perhaps golf’s greatest fashion icon was Tiger Woods, who made wearing Sunday red popular everywhere from exclusive private clubs to small town municipalities. Woods started doing this when he was a junior because his mother, Kultida, said it was his “powerful color.” He played well the first time in red and persisted out of superstition.

For 27 years, Woods’ Sunday Red has come from Nike in one of the most successful partnerships in sports. But late last year, the sides announced they had split and Woods revealed in February that he would launch his own brand, called Sun Day Red, in partnership with his golf equipment supplier, TaylorMade.

“Sun Day Red will embody the love of playing and competing, and we champion people who share these values, whether on the field or in life,” Woods said in February. “We will be committed to putting the athlete first in the product decisions we make.”

The first good look the public got was at Augusta National this week. Woods wore a salmon polo shirt for the opening round on Thursday that featured the brand’s logo, a tiger with 15 stripes in honor of his 15 major victories. Woods then wore a gray and white ensemble on Friday when he returned early to finish his first round and then played his second.

It was perfect timing – or marketing genius – because Sun Day Red will officially launch on May 1st.

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AP Golf: