Player-director Peter Malnati was back in the winners’ circle on the PGA Tour for the first time in nine years on Sunday, producing a sensational final round to win the Valspar Championship
Fierce LIV Golf critic Peter Malnati ended his nine-year wait for glory on the PGA Tour on Sunday, storming to victory at the Valspar Championship in Florida.
The 36-year-old had not been in the winners’ circle since claiming the Sanderson Farms Championship in 2015, who was ranked 184 in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) before the event started at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort.
He claimed a career-high payday as he shot a final round of 67 to edge out Cameron Young by two shots, banking almost £1.2million in prize money. The new world number 65 – a career-high ranking – could not hold back the tears as he celebrated with his loved ones on the 18th green.
“You wonder if you’re ever going to win again because it’s hard,” Malnati said. “In the nine years since my last win, it’s gotten a lot harder, too. The level of talent out here, they’re so good. You just wonder, so to have this moment feels so amazing.”
Malnati is not your typical PGA Tour player. With his yellow ball, white floppy hat and eccentric mannerisms, he has been the voice for the rank-and-file PGA Tour members on the policy board as a player director, working alongside the likes of Tiger Woods and Jordan Speith to shape the future of the tour.
He and the five other player directors – Woods, Speith, Charley Hoffman, Patrick Cantlay and Adam Scott – were at the heart of negotiations with the Strategic Sports Group (SSG), the consortium headed by Liverpool owners the Fenway Sports Group that agreed to invest £2.4billion into the PGA Tour this year.
Malnati celebrated the win with his wife, Alicia, and their family ( Image: Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)
“I actually think it’s kind of fitting that you just heard from probably the greatest player to ever play on the PGA Tour [Woods] – definitely the greatest of our generation – share his enthusiasm and his excitement for this deal,” Malnati said on the conference call as the deal was confirmed in January.
“And now I’m going to tell you that, as a guy who has been on tour for 10 years and has never finished better than 86th in the FedEx Cup, this deal is equally exciting for me as it is for Tiger.”
Negotiations with LIV’s backers, the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF), have been more complicated, however. A framework agreement for PIF and the PGA Tour to merge was announced in June, but the deal is yet to be completed, although Malnati and the player directors met with PIF chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan in The Bahamas last week in the hope of progressing negotiations.
Malnati has made it clear he is not a fan of LIV Golf and its team format. He said after The Players eight on March 17: “I don’t know what they’re doing, but it seems like a very forced team model, to me. When, at the end of the day, are there any fans that care which team won the tournament? I don’t know what fans of LIV want or care about, but are there any fans that care about who won it?
“I mean, that seems so contrived to me. I feel like we could also create some contrived team golf something, somewhere outside of the FedEx Cup season. But what does [Al-Rumayyan] really want is a question that I want to understand better.
“Because I don’t think it’s some contrived, fake, add up random guys’ scores and call them a team. I don’t think that’s it. I think what he means is more stuff like the Ryder Cup, I would guess, but I have no clue because I haven’t talked to him.”
