LIV Golf Adelaide put Kim on every screen that matters in golf. The socks were visible. The brand was readable. In a tour built on individual spotlighting, what a player wears in a final round is not incidental; it is broadcast inventory.

On February 18, 2026, sports business reporter Josh Carpenter posted on X that a Malbon spokesperson had confirmed no official deal exists with Anthony Kim.

“We have a friendly relationship with him, and he wears our product both on and off course.”

The post drew 31,500 views and was brief yet careful. It arrived three days after Kim won LIV Golf Adelaide, his first professional victory since April 2010, wearing Malbon socks over an Under Armour team kit. In a sport where apparel signals alignment and endorsement dollars, the distinction between voluntary wear and signed sponsorship carries commercial weight, and Malbon chose to draw it publicly.

Carpenter had first reported in January that Malbon appeared to have a deal with Kim, after he was spotted wearing a branded polo during a pre-tournament interview ahead of the LIV Golf Promotions event. Golf media picked it up. Kim began appearing in ambassador lists alongside Jason Day, Charley Hull, and Fred Couples, without any qualifier separating voluntary wear from a signed contract. Adelaide did not start the rumour. It gave it legs.

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Malbon’s own social media added fuel. On February 16, the brand posted on Instagram.

“Congratulations to @anthonykimofficial on capturing the 2026 LIV Golf Adelaide Championship. Proud to stand behind you, AK.”

On X, they replied to related content: “You looked too good out there, Champ.” Celebratory, brand-aligned, and entirely non-contractual. The website, meanwhile, highlights Freddie Couples and Kim is not listed.

The spokesperson’s quote draws the line that the social posts did not.

Kim’s team structure explains why the line matters. Under Armour signed a sponsorship with 4Aces GC in mid-January 2026, a team-level deal covering all members with official kit. Kim joined 4Aces on February 11. There is no personal UA contract on record. Personal items, socks, footwear, and accessories sit outside the team mandate. Kim has worn FootJoy shoes since mid-2025, not UA’s team footwear. The Malbon socks at Adelaide were a personal choice. The clarification names that accurately.

Compare that with Jason Day, whose Malbon deal is formal and scripted. The brand dictates his tournament looks and requires pre-approvals for majors. That structure is what placed him in front of an Augusta National official during the 2024 Masters, where he was required to remove a vest the club deemed too unorthodox. The logo size violated the dress code. Day removed it. Malbon kept going.

Kim carries none of that contractual weight. Both parties benefit from the gap. Malbon gets visibility from golf’s most compelling comeback story without compliance overhead. Kim retains commercial flexibility at the most marketable moment of his post-return career.

Anthony Kim, Malbon Golf, and LIV Golf’s visibility problem

LIV Golf’s broadcast model made a pair of socks a commercial story. Individual spotlighting, team identity visuals, and social-first production put apparel choices in plain sight. On the PGA Tour, a player’s socks were not a story. On LIV, in a final round where Kim birdied five of his last seven holes to beat Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau by three shots, every frame was read commercially.

That is what turned an informal arrangement into a question requiring a spokesperson.

The clarification protects Kim’s options. It separates affinity from contract at the moment his market value is highest. What a brand says after a win, and what it chooses not to sign, is its own kind of statement.

Malbon has been here before. They know exactly what they are doing.