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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.

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The post Titleist’s GT drivers already have pros raving about 1 crucial aspect appeared first on Golf.

DUBLIN, Ohio — Billy Horschel could sense something was different. Midway through a Monday afternoon Titleist GT driver testing session, Horschel watched in anticipation as the ball finally came to rest on the back of the Muirfield Village Golf Club driving range.

Horschel’s polished swing makes it difficult to discern between perfect strikes and misses during testing. Feedback is critical to determine if adjustments need to be made to the club in question. So, too, is a launch monitor that spits out instantaneous data.

Lucky for Liam McDougall, Titleist’s European director of tour operations, Horschel always keeps the feedback flowing.

“That one was low on the face,” Horschel noted. “But it still felt like it was coming out of a good window.”

As McDougall assessed the launch monitor data on a tablet, he paused and turned to Horschel.

“What do you think the spin rate was on that one?” McDougall said.

For Horschel, a low miss tends to increase spin from 2,200 to 2,900 RPMs, leading to a dip in distance in most cases. For someone who currently ranks 93rd on Tour in driving distance, every yard counts when attempting to clear a bunker at 300 yards. But this particular drive was coming out of Horschel’s usual launch window (10-11 degrees) with 2,400 spin. (Horschel’s clubhead speed increased from 115 to 116.5 mph and ball speed ticked up from 173-174 to 175-178 during driver testing between TSR3 and GT3.)

In other words, the penalty for a low miss wasn’t showing up on the launch monitor.

“When you have a guy like Rory [McIlroy] who’s cruising in the upper 180s [ball speed], he can carry things 300 yards regardless of whether he’s spinning it 2,200 or 2,800 [RPMs],” Horschel told GOLF.com. “That ball is still going 310-plus yards. For someone like myself who carries it 295, I can carry things at 300 yards, but I have to be able to launch it and have the right spin.

In recent years, equipment manufacturers have begun to crack the driver code through new materials and processes. In the past, design sacrifices had to be made to produce certain launch, spin and forgiveness characteristics. Pull one performance lever and another had to be released. There was always a tradeoff to be made. But that could be changing.

Drivers

“Having those spin rates so tight allows me to get similar carry distances even when I don’t hit it good. If I do miss one a little thin, it’s not spinning at 2,800 or 2,900 where it could fly 10 yards shorter,” Horschel said. “It’s still going to fly the same distance or maybe a few yards shorter than if I hit it solid. It gives me the confidence if there’s a bunker at 300 or 305 I want to carry, I don’t have to be perfect. I can miss it and know it’s still going to carry. Once I get above 175, that gets me to the 300-plus yards of carry without having to launch it 13 degrees with 2,000 spin. I can still launch it in my window at 10 or 11 degrees with 2,300 or 2,400. Those extra 2 miles per hour go a long way.”

Titleist’s new GT drivers, which were released on Tour at the Memorial, appear to be the latest offering to feature tight spin deltas across the face. The tighter the spin rate on a mishit, compared to a center strike, the more consistent the launch and carry numbers. It essentially adds a new layer of forgiveness and ball speed retention where golfers need it most.

Along with Horschel, GOLF.com witnessed several GT driver testing sessions that produced similar spin rate results on misses. Peter Malnati, who has a low miss tendency, found distance gains through the same tight spin rate deltas as Horschel, along with an uptick in ball speed.

“When you look at [Peter], he swings well when he’s down,” JJ Van Wezenbeeck, Titleist’s director of player promotions, told GOLF.com. “He wants that cover down and is a lower-launch guy who misses more off the bottom. Getting better ball speeds down there is always important.

“Consistency has been showing up out here during testing. Launch, spin and speed are staying there, even on those misses. Getting a little uptick in speed is good for these guys, but when you’re playing the harder golf courses, having that consistency off the face is at a premium.”

While tighter spin rate deltas appear to be the biggest improvement from TSR to GT, Horschel highlighted another aspect that earned his approval.

“To me, the feel is persimmon-like,” said Horschel. “Ping Rapture was one of my favorites — the way it sounded, felt, looked. This Titleist [GT] is very similar to that. Everyone is different out here in the way they judge feel. I want it to feel really solid where the ball is staying on the face for a long time. I can relate to feel off that and it gives me a good idea if I missed it or hit it good. I’ve always been that way.”

With initial testing out of the way, Horschel and other potential GT users in the field at Muirfield Village will have to decide if they want to give the driver a go this week ahead of the U.S. Open. Although the two-year cadence is the same, this is the earliest Titleist has released a driver on Tour.

Asked why Titleist chose to go earlier than usual, Van Wezenbeeck said it was a no-brainer after the feedback they received from pros who helped develop the final GT product, including Will Zalatoris.

“We had guys like Will coming to us asking if they could test it,” Van Wezenbeeck said. “When you have a good thing, you don’t want to wait until the Fall to bring it out here.”

Want to overhaul your bag for 2024? Find a fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.

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The post WATCH: Peter Malnati caps adventurous three weeks with ace in Houston appeared first on Golf.

The post WATCH: Peter Malnati caps adventurous three weeks with ace in Houston appeared first on Golf.

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.

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The post ‘People are sick of the narrative’: Why Peter Malnati’s heartfelt message hit home appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘People are sick of the narrative’: Why Peter Malnati’s heartfelt message hit home appeared first on Golf.

Peter Malnati knows who he’s not.

“I kind of joked when I saw my pairing come out, ‘Yeah, makes sense they’re putting all the best ball-strikers on Tour in a group, they want to see us out there just have a ball-striking contest, me and Scottie and Will, it will be great.'”

He was referring to his playing partners at this week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open, Scottie Scheffler and Will Zalatoris, two of the Lone Star State’s biggest and brightest pros. In the last four years, Scheffler and Zalatoris have 14 top-eight finishes in 23 combined major starts. Malnati, a decade their senior, has played three majors in his career and never made a cut.

But things are different now.

Malnati’s career changed on Sunday when he rallied on the back nine at the Valspar Championship for a two-stroke victory and just the second title of his PGA Tour career. The win catapulted him to No. 65 in the world, his first time inside the top 100. It earned him a two-year Tour exemption. It earned him an invite to the Masters. He’ll be in the Tour’s Signature Events the rest of the season, too. And of course there was the winner’s check for $1.51 million.

But what resonated with golf fans was the winning moment and the tearful interview that Malnati gave on the 18th green in the minutes following his victory.

“You wonder if you’re ever going to do it again, because it’s hard,” he told NBC’s Kira Dixon, holding his son in his arms. He spoke of his caddie, of his wife, of his kids, of his gratitude. “Life is hard. It’s obviously glamorous at times like this, and this is my dream job, and it’s absolutely amazing. But life is really, really hard, too, when you’re trying to figure out how to live this lifestyle and have two kids and be everything that you want to be, it’s really hard … this just feels so good.”

The Valspar was hardly the talk of the sports world over the weekend. We’re in the lull between the Players Championship and the Masters, the field was decent but not great, the list of Sunday contenders lacked star power and the opening rounds of March Madness dominated viewership and discourse.

Still, Malnati’s moment hit home with viewers. His interview made the rounds on social media. There was a depth to the story to which people connected; it was clearly a career-changing moment, and the real-time appreciation Malnati showed proved that the moment mattered in a different sort of way than, say, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler’s dramatic victory at TPC Sawgrass just a week earlier.

Malnati said he heard from “I can’t tell you how many people” in the days that followed. So why’d he think it left such a mark? It was clear from his answer that he’s thought a lot about it.

“We can all probably remember when we were kids, and we were all kids at different times, but the things that moved us that we watched,” he said during his Wednesday press conference in Houston. “I remember watching [Michael] Jordan and the ’97 Bulls, I remember watching Tiger in the 2000 Masters. I didn’t care one iota what Jordan’s contract was. I didn’t care one iota what the winner’s check at that U.S. Open was. And I think people are sick of that. I think people are just sick of the narrative in golf being about, you know, contracts on LIV, purses on the Tour, guaranteed comp on the Tour. I think people are so sick of that. They want to see sport, they want to see people who are the best in the world at what they do do it at a high level and celebrate that, celebrate the athleticism, celebrate the achievement.

“Obviously this is a business and to the top players who drive a lot of the value in this business, we’ve got to compensate them fairly, we’ve got to make that happen. But I think we’re doing that above and beyond, and the narrative, the storylines, the conversation needs to come back to the product on the course and what we do.

“I think for me that was like I just, I just feel like no kid dreamed when they were watching Jordan dreamed of having his salary, they didn’t care about that. They dreamed of being in that moment, hitting that shot. I think that’s what our fans care about too and that’s what they want to see.”

The multi-billion dollar question, then: Is he right? Is a story like Malnati’s the sort of thing fans crave? And should the Tour be structured to prioritize those stories?

It’s a salient question as the professional golf world ponders its future. It’s a salient question as the PGA Tour decides how many players should be in its fields, how many of its fields should be limited and how — and how much — players should be paid for their services. It’s a salient question as golfers get paid more and more without any evidence, as of yet, that more money leads to more viewers. And it’s a salient question given Malnati is a member of the Tour’s Policy Board, which is currently tasked with finding an answer.

Malnati’s press conference remarks made the rounds on Wednesday, once again finding their mark with an audience fed up with talk of money and greed. But there were also commenters who weren’t sold on their premise. The Valspar’s ratings were down, after all. How much did his win resonate, really?

On one hand, connecting Malnati’s emotional moment to the tournament’s sagging TV ratings misses the point. On Sunday, his coronation (which ran up against NCAA hoops) came just moments before the broadcast went off-air; viewers wouldn’t have known that his win is what they were waiting around to see. And it was pretty clear that the win did resonate with those who were watching, marking a win for the Tour, as it’s nice to leave your audience on a good note. They might consider coming back.

On the other hand, ratings have dipped fairly consistently in 2024. A story like Malnati’s is terrific as a part of the fabric of the Tour, but the Tour can’t be built around Cinderella stories; fans respond to meaningful tournaments at familiar courses featuring leaderboards comprised of players they know. When some of golf’s well-known players departed for LIV, it hurt the Tour they left behind, and even feel-good stories can’t immediately fill that void. This is the big leagues, after all, and Malnati himself recognized that on Wednesday: “Four days ago no one cared if Peter Malnati was in their field or not, really,” he said.

So what can we take from Malnati’s moment? It’s pretty simple, really, and it’s the same lesson we keep learning: Sports work when they matter. And they can’t matter to a viewer unless they matter to the competitors. LIV has big money and big stars and a reimagined format but has not produced many resonant moments. The Tour’s big-money Signature Events haven’t flopped but they haven’t soared, either. Outside of the majors, golf’s biggest events still need to feel bigger. Bigger consequences. Bigger meaning. Bigger moments on bigger stages that can inspire kids to want to imagine themselves in those moments on those stages. Moments that can be earned and aspired to and celebrated when achieved.

That’s Malnati’s lesson, then, as the Tour keeps thinking bigger: The little guy can still play an important role.

Dylan welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.

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The post Peter Malnati emotional after first PGA Tour win in more than 8 years appeared first on Golf.

The post Peter Malnati emotional after first PGA Tour win in more than 8 years appeared first on Golf.

Peter Malnati was far from the favorite to win this week’s Valspar Championship.

The 36-year-old journeyman PGA Tour pro, ranked 184th in the world, has been in the headlines over the past few months, but not because of his play.

Malnati has had a whirlwind past few weeks as a PGA Tour Policy Board member. He got a somewhat controversial sponsor’s invite into the Arnold Palmer Invitational, his second for a Signature Event. Then he faced dozens of questions last week at the Players Championship on the future of the Tour ahead of a meeting with the Saudi Arabain Public Investment Fund on Monday in the Bahamas.

But on Sunday at Innisbrook, Malnati was let all of that go. He broke down on the 18th green.

Starting the day two off the lead in a tie for second, Malnati shot a final-round 67 to get to 12 under and win the Valspar Championship by two shots for his second career PGA Tour title.

The 10th-year pro’s second title comes more than eight years after his first, which came at the 2015 Sanderson Championship. He was overcome by emotions when he reflected on the time between wins with Golf Channel’s Kira Dixon after his final putt dropped.

“You wonder if you are ever going to do it again,” Malnati said, holding back tears and holding his son, Hatcher. “Because it’s hard. And in the nine years since my last year, it’s gotten harder too.”

He had to stop and collect himself several times.

“To have this moment, it just feels so amazing,” Malnati continued. “Obviously, my family believes in me. I’ve got the best caddie. He’s been loyal to me for a long time. Through a lot of downtimes too.

“I’m just so thankful for my wife. She makes this all possible because life is hard. It’s obviously glamorous at times like this and since this is my dream job and it’s absolutely amazing. But life is really hard too when you’re trying to live this lifestyle and have two kids and be everything you want to be. It’s really hard. My wife has been an absolute rock through all of it…

“This just feels so good. It feels so good.”

Malnati was part of a packed leaderboard throughout the final day at Innisbrook but seemed to be an afterthought when he cold topped his second shot at the par-5 fifth.

But the veteran rebounded by making par at No. 5, birdieing the next hole and then making three in a row to open the back nine and surge into a share of the lead with Cameron Young at 11 under.

He benefited from a fantastic break on the 16th green, taking relief from a sprinkler head to drop what would have been a ball buried in the deep rough to the fringe and two-putt for par on the Copperhead course’s most difficult hole.

News

Then, after Young hooked his tee shot into the trees on 18 ahead, Malnati rifled a long iron at the pin on 17 and converted the six-foot birdie putt to take the outright lead.

Young did well to hook his approach over and around the trees, but left his first putt short. When he missed the par putt, it cleared the stage for Malnati to make par from the fairway bunker for the win.

The victory gets Malnati, who has played in only three career major championships, into next month’s Masters for the first time in his career.

Young, meanwhile, earns his seventh runner-up finish in his three-year career, the most of any player without a win in the last 40 years on the PGA Tour, according to stat guru Justin Ray.

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