Peter Malnati was off to a good start at Thursday’s Black Desert Championship in Ivins, Utah. The PGA Tour veteran birdied the par-3 3rd to get to one under early, but he ran into trouble on the 4th hole.
The Black Desert Resort course was the final one from architect Tom Weiskopf, and the course winds through a lava field. Like many desert courses, that means there’s also lots of unplayable areas and out-of-bounds penalties looming.
On the 4th hole, a 477-yard par-4, Malnati found one of those O.B. areas when he blocked his shot right. He was forced to re-tee, but then he did it again — this time missing out of bounds left.
Still on the tee and playing his fifth shot, he blasted it 299 yards down the fairway and then had 177 remaining for his approach. So naturally he holed that for a double bogey.
The ball landed right of the green but took the slope and spun hard left toward the hole. It picked up speed and clanked off the pin and fell into the cup for a double-bogey 6 — which was also a nice break since the pin stopped the ball from rolling a good 10 feet by the hole.
After the hole-out, a subdued Malnati muttered, “golf sucks,” before cracking a smile. “Golf sucks so bad.”
He elaborated as his playing partners congratulated him.
“This is the stupidest… nice double!” he said.
Malnati shot a two-over 73 and will have to throw in an under-par round on Friday to make the cut. He begins his second round at 8:29 a.m. ET on Friday. You can view complete Round 2 tee times here, and scroll the tournament leaderboard here.
