Malnati finally headed to Augusta, doesn't know how he'll feel
Peter Malnati has fielded many invites to the Masters. Until now, though, they’d all been to attend as a patron or play Augusta National with a member.
And never as a competitor.
“I got asked a lot when I was a kid, ‘My uncle has tickets to the Masters, do you want to come? My friend has tickets to the Masters, do you want to come?’ And I always said no,” Malnati said. “I don’t want to go watch people play golf. That doesn’t sound fun. So, I didn’t go.”
When Malnati earned his way to the PGA Tour a little over a decade ago, the offers to play Augusta National would occasionally present themselves. He declined those, too, wanting his first round on the venerable layout to be after he qualified for the Masters.
For Malnati, that time has finally come. His first Tour win, at the 2015 Sanderson Farms, didn’t come with a Masters berth, but his two-shot win Sunday at the Valspar Championship did – well, technically a likely invitation, but it'll be in the mail shortly.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet at all because, I mean, I – I guess I’m going to be there in…,” Malnati said, looking at the moderator of Sunday evening’s winner’s presser for guidance. “When is it?”
“Three weeks,” the moderator answered.
To which Malnati replied, “Wow. That’s pretty cool. So, yeah, that’s great.”
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It's hard to blame Malnati, who at 36 years old is in his 10th full season on Tour, for the astonishment. But he’s used to feeling that way. He said he remembers his days on what is now called the Korn Ferry Tour, when every event “felt like a major to me.” Same goes for every Tour event he’s ever played, even the ones on what he calls the “Island Tour,” which includes events in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Bermuda. And especially the Travelers Championship, which Malnati, who said Sunday he wants to be a member at TPC River Highlands when he’s 75, refers to as “my major.”
“I've never teed it up in a Tour event and not felt, wow, this is, like, I'm nervous, and this is important, and 90 percent of us on Tour are that way,” said Malnati, who has only teed it up in three career majors, none since 2018.
“So, like, I'm going to go play next week in Houston, and, like, there may not be the history and the story and, you know, I may feel something special when I get on the grounds at Augusta, and I hope I do, but I'm going to feel just as amped up on the first tee next week in Houston, because this, playing golf on the PGA Tour for 90 percent of us out here, is A, really, really hard, and B, the realization of a dream. So, I'm not going to put too much emphasis on the fact that, yeah, I'm in the Masters. That is cool, don't get me wrong, I'm excited about it and I cannot wait to set foot on the grounds. That will be amazing.
"But I think more of what has sunk in to me is, this guarantees me that — this is my 10th season on the PGA Tour — it guarantees me that I'm going to have 12, at least. … Now I know for sure I'm going to have a job on the best tour in the world for two and a half more years. That's what I think about right now.”
Malnati took a breath and then conceded: “But I'm sure as I, you know, relax a little bit from here, I'll start wondering what that 12th tee shot to that back right pin at Augusta's going to feel like.”
He’ll find out, finally, in three weeks.
