Phil Mickelson Tests LAB Putter at LIV Tournament

Say what you will about Phil Mickelson—and you can say a lot—but he isn’t boring or conventional.

Neither is the putter he has in the bag during practice this week at LIV Golf’s Jeddah tournament.

The six-time major champion has been spotted testing the LAB Golf DF3 putter, one of the most striking putters in golf. The model recently became available to consumers.

Mickelson’s DF3 is 35 inches with a 71-degree lie angle (press #2, 3-degree grip, TPT shaft).

Mickelson has been partial to blades throughout his career, including when he won the 2021 PGA Championship using an Odyssey “Phil Mickelson” blade prototype with a SuperStroke Pistol GT Tour CounterCore grip.

But the LAB DF3 is a stark departure from a blade. LAB putters, which have garnered a cult following, can be described as “absurd” or a “pretzel on a stick” due to the abnormally large head—but there is no doubt they work.

The DF3 is a smaller version of the DF 2.1, which was LAB Golf’s flagship putter. Despite the reduced size, the DF3 still has low torque to avoid twisting at impact. There are eight sole weights along the wings that help prioritize stability through the stroke.

Mickelson’s putting had let him down late in his PGA Tour career. He could manage no better than No. 116 in strokes gained putting over his final three full seasons on the tour. It’s hard to tell how he has performed on the greens since he moved to LIV given the lack of stats, but it would seem he is looking for a spark.

PGA Tour player Garrick Higgo also has a LAB DF3 in the bag. Will Zalatoris, Grayson Murray and Byeong Hun An are LAB putter users but have different models.

We’ll be on the lookout to see if he puts the LAB DF3 in play this weekend in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.