Weekly PGA Recap: Malnati Paints a Masterpiece

This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.

Peter Malnati has always fought for the little guy on the PGA Tour. He's been the rare lesser player with a respected voice, and his seat on the Player Advisory Council gave him an audience. He originally expressed concerns, rather loudly, about the Tour creating elevated events in a response to LIV Golf, tournaments largely designed to make the richest players even richer.

He eventually came around on the format, convinced there would be enough churn to help the secondary players get a piece of the pie, or at least an occasional bite. And that has turned out to be true.

We're not sure whether you believe in karma. But if there is that fate or destiny or whatever you want to call it, Malnati was the recipient on Sunday at the Valspar Championship, where he received "payback" for all the good he does for the game.

The 36-year-old Indiana native, ranked 184th in the world -- who has missed the cut in more than half the tournaments he's ever played -- closed with a brilliant back-nine 31 to capture the title on Sunday at Copperhead, beating 23rd-ranked Cameron Young by two strokes.

Malnati's second career win came nine years after his first. It will get him into his first Masters and, yes, the four remaining 2024 Signature Events.

The short-hitting 159-pounder hit a brilliant shot to six feet on the 198-yard 17th hole and made the birdie putt to take the lead. That came one hole after he overshot his approach on 16 into some thick greenside rough. But -- and here's perhaps a little more karma for you -- the ball nestled where a sprinkler head would affect his stance. He got relief onto the fringe and easily made par.

More than a few heads have been turning this year when Malnati and other Advisory Council members started getting sponsor's invites into the big-money Signature Events. Malnati got only one, into Pebble Beach -- where he tied for 14th -- while others have gotten multiple invites.

There's nothing wrong with getting one, a perk for working on the Advisory Council for years and representing the rank-and-file. In his post-tournament media session, Malnati continued to be the voice of the little guy, and for the PGA Tour. The comments were long, so we display them here in a tweet. 

When Malnati won the Sanderson Farms back in 2015, it was an alternate-field event and, thus, did not come with an invitation to the Masters. This win does, in his 259th career start, and Malnati will be heading to Augusta for the first time to play his fourth career major. He was asked about the Masters on Sunday and, again, his comments were thoughtful.

"You know, 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, I don't want to go watch people play golf. That doesn't sound fun. So I didn't go.

"And then as I became a PGA Tour member and played on the PGA Tour, became a winner on the PGA Tour, I would occasionally meet the right person who would say, hey, do you want to come play Augusta? I was like, no. Like, I want to go play Augusta when I'm in the Masters. That's when I want to go play Augusta. So the fact that I -- it's still an invitational. They can choose not to invite me, I suppose, but I think historically they're pretty consistent and I think I'll get an invitation. I'll probably accept that invitation and go play the Masters (laughing), which will be really, really -- I mean, the realization of another childhood dream. Yeah, I mean, I guess, yeah, that's cool. It hasn't sunk in yet at all because, I mean, I'm I -- I guess I'm going to be there in -- when is it?"

That's really kind of funny, and sweet and charming. Even in victory, Malnati continued to sound like one of the little guys. The truth is, this win probably doesn't change much for his career arc. He'll still be a little guy, a once-in-a-while low-priced fantasy option -- but now in Signature Events with all the big boys.

We're also confident that something else won't change: Malnati will continue to be the voice of and fight for the journeymen of the PGA Tour -- players just like him.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Cameron Young
Young has played 60 PGA Tour events and he's now been a bridesmaid seven times. That's the most on Tour without a win going back to at least 1983. This one had to be especially painful for Young, since he had a lead deep into the back nine and also putted far better than he normally does, ranking 27th in the field. He's matched his career-high ranking of 13th, reached for the first time last year after finishing T7 at the Masters (hint, hint).

Mackenzie Hughes
Like Young and a few others, Hughes found his name atop the leaderboard at some point on Sunday only to be foiled by the tough Copperhead track. He bogeyed the 9th, 12th and 13th holes. However, this by far was his best showing of what has been a disappointing 2024. Hughes' previous best finish was a tie for 25th at the limited-field Sentry.

Chandler Phillips
The 27-year-old Texas A&M alum and Korn Ferry grad had to be one of the most anonymous players on a Sunday leaderboard in some time. But holding a share of the lead on Sunday and finishing tied for third in your 12th lifetime PGA Tour event will change all that. Phillips had been decent already in 2024, at least when he's been able to get into fields. He had top-25s at the Amex and Mexico Open in just six prior starts.

Xander Schauffele
The class of this weak field showed it on Sunday, but by then it was too late to truly contend. Schauffele roared up the leaderboard with a Sunday-best 6-under 65, good for yet another top five with his share of fifth. He hasn't won in close to two years and he's never won a major, but there aren't many golfers playing better just three weeks before the Masters.

Adam Hadwin
Hadwin tied for fifth, adding to his T6 at the Amex and T4 at the Genesis in what has been a great start to the year. Whether that can translate into a good Masters coming up, well, we'll have to wait and see. Hadwin has never finished better than 24th at Augusta and hasn't been back since 2020.
 
Carl Yuan
Yuan started the year with a tie for fourth at the Sony. After that, though, he played six times and amassed four missed cuts, one WD and a tie for 52nd. So naturally, he tied for fifth at the Valspar. The 27-year-old China native and University of Washington alum could be like so many other PGA rank-and-file players, meaning he could amass the bulk of his earnings in just a handful of tournaments. The trouble for us is figuring which 4-5 events those are over the course of eight months.

Ryan Moore
The five-time Tour winner is now 41 and his best days were long ago. Every so often he can find enough of his former game to have a good week, though rarely as good as this tie for fifth at the Valspar. It's hard to consider Moore much of a fantasy option.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout
The South African's sterling start to 2024 continued with a tie for ninth. He now has two top-10s and five top-25s, and some of them have come in loaded fields. He is not yet in the Masters, but is on the threshold at No. 55 in the world. Curiously, he is not playing this week's Houston Open.

K.H. Lee
Lee has fallen far from his apex when he was winning Byron Nelsons like he was, well, Byron Nelson. But suddenly in the past month, he's shown a spark. First it was a tie for fourth at the Cognizant and now a tie for ninth at the Valspar. Like we mentioned with Yuan – good luck predicting when Lee's next good week will come. But if you're feeling lucky, he's in the Houston Open field.

Lucas Glover
Glover was near the top of the golf world when he won back-to-back last year at the Wyndham and FedEx St. Jude playoff event. He hasn't had a top-10 since then and, while he still doesn't, he tied for 11th at Copperhead. This figures to be the type of setup where Glover can thrive: in a weaker field on a tough course where things don't turn into a birdie-fest.

Billy Horschel
Horschel soared up the leaderboard with a closing 67 to tie for 12th. With a recent tie for ninth at the Cognizant, could the one-time top-15 player beginning a climb back to relevance? Probably not, but it wouldn't be a complete shocker, either.

Taylor Moore
Moore acquitted himself nicely as defending champion by tying for 12th. He hasn't missed a cut since the Open Championship last summer, but he also hadn't had a top-20 this year until this week.

Keith Mitchell
The 54-hole leader by two strokes imploded with a 77 to tumble down the leaderboard into a tie for 17th. Mitchell had played some great golf with two top-10s and two other top-20s already in 2024 – plus a back-nine 29 on Saturday. But that's Copperhead. We'll see how he responds to this huge disappointment in this week's Houston Open.

Stewart Cink
The 50-year-old who splits time with the Champions tour found himself as the 36-hole leader. But Cink fell apart with a Saturday 76 and wound up tied for 33rd. Still, at the beginning of the week, he might've taken that result.

Justin Thomas
Golf Twitter and golf fans everywhere were in disbelief as Thomas moved into the lead early on Saturday only to see disaster strike – mostly on the greens – and he shot 79. He lost more than seven shots to the field on the greens in the third round alone, one of the worst recorded putting rounds ever. Thomas ranked 74th in putting in the field for the week and ended up T64 in the tournament. Like with Scottie Scheffler recently, could a putter change be coming for Thomas? He really has to do something.

MISSED CUTS

Sam Burns, Jordan Spieth, Brian Harman, Keegan Bradley, Tony Finau, Sungjae Im. Burns was the biggest surprise after winning here twice in 2021-22 and finishing sixth last year. But it shouldn't be a concern because he's been playing consistently well. … Spieth, however, has now missed two cuts in a row and it's fair to wonder whether he'll play to his usual level where he almost always does well – at Augusta. … Other than a runner-up at the Sony, Bradley has not played well this year. … Finau and Im have not been good in 2024 at all, and going back to 2023.