It’s been an eventful three-week stretch for Peter Malnati, to say the least.
Things kicked off for the longtime journeyman pro — and PGA Tour Policy Board member — at the Players Championship where he faced numerous questions on the future of the Tour and its negotiations with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund.
After making the cut at TPC Sawgrass — and shooting 81 on Sunday — Malnati reportedly headed to the Bahamas, along with the other player directors on the Policy Board, for a meeting with PIF head Yasir Al-Rumayaan.
From there, Malnati got right back to the grind of pro golf. He excelled, winning his first tournament in more than 8 years at the Valspar Championship. Winning on the PGA Tour can be a drag in the aftermath with all the media obligations and such, especially after such an emotional and popular win like Malnati’s.
He said he just wanted to make the cut this week.
Well he made the cut and was an unmemorable T34 heading into Sunday, but he’ll still end up remembering this week.
Malnati came to the seventh hole, his 16th of the day, and gave his 5-iron a rip from 223 yards on Memorial Park’s longest one-shotter.
It was perfect from the start, with his now-signature yellow ball landing in the center of the green, releasing all the way to the back pin and dropping in the cup for an ace.
The hole-in-one was the third of his PGA Tour career for the 36-year-old.
“I don’t remember what I finished either of those weeks when I made a hole-in-one at Wyndham or RBC Heritage but I do remember those shots, so this will be the same,” he said.
Malnati didn’t even appear to know his ball had fallen from the tee.
The camera panned back toward him staring back at the green, possibly wondering what prompted the roar on a hole the leaders had already played through.
Someone can be heard on the broadcast asking, “That’s not a hole-in-one though, right?”
Malnati just handed his club to his caddie and smiled.
“The ball kind of disappears over a little ridge on that green so we couldn’t actually see it,” he said. “It was funny because obviously not a whole lot of people are watching the 9:30 group off 10 here on Sunday in Houston so there was a smattering of people behind the green and half of them went ‘Woooo!’ and the other half just sat completely still. We were like, ‘Oh,’ that was kind of like a really close ‘Woooo.’
“So we didn’t know it went in until we got up to the green and it was crazy.”
He’ll enjoy a nice week off before playing the Masters for the first time in his career.