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SANDERSON FARMS CHAMPIONSHIPNovember 9, 2015Peter MalnatiJackson, Mississippi JOE SANDERSON: Good afternoon. Good to have you all here. Thank you for coming and for the coverage. We appreciate that. I'm pleased to introduce our 2015 champion, Peter Malnati, from Tennessee. PETER MALNATI: Yes, sir, that's right. JOE SANDERSON: And originally from Indiana, attended the University of Missouri. A fine young man. You just met his wife, and we are very proud to have him as our new champion, and we hope this provides a boost for his career and certainly provides him with a job for the next two years. PETER MALNATI: That's right. JOE SANDERSON: So fire away if you have some questions. Q. TV caught you doing some pull-ups in the clubhouse during the break, while you were waiting. How was it kind of sitting around, nervous moments? PETER MALNATI: You know, that's a feeling that I've really never had before. I was fortunate to win twice on the Web.com TOUR, but I was in the second-to-last group for my first win, so by the time I was done with my scorecard the final group was done. And the other win this spring, I was in the final group. So I've never been the leader in the clubhouse and gotten to sit and kind of watch groups come in. Yeah, that was a new feeling. Certainly much better to be in that situation than not once you're done. You'd like to be the leader in the clubhouse. Yeah, it was kind of all surreal at that point. I was definitely happy. I don't really know what all I was feeling. I was just pretty happy. Q. Can you just talk about your approach over the last 12 holes? You were at 13-under after six today and then all of a sudden birdie, birdie, birdie? PETER MALNATI: Yeah. You know, they always say, I guess, sound, sports psychology, mental game, you don't ever want to think about the total or the outcome or any of that, you just want to be focused on shot by shot, and I actually did a very nice job of that. But it's funny to say now because it wouldn't have been good enough to win, but I kind of had 27 holes to play today, and when I drove in the club this morning at 5:10, the flags were whipping and it was cold. I thought it would be pretty challenging, so I just sort of set a little bit of a mini-goal for myself. I said I wanted to get to 16-under par. I was 10 this morning when I drove in and said I wanted to get to 16-under par. When I had a little blip on my front nine, I had my only three-putt of the week, my only real poor putt of the week. I missed a short one on 5, and then 6 was just a tough hole and I hit a poor drive and it set up a bogey, but that was fine. You're going to make some bogeys, and that was a fine bogey. But when I did that, I was a little rattled, but I said, you know, your goal is to get to 16-under and you're 13 right now. Just keep doing what you're doing. And I did. I got good looks, gave myself -- I gave myself a lot of birdie putts. I'll actually enjoy to go -- I'm not a big stats guy, but I'll enjoy to go look at my stats because I bet I hit a lot of greens, particularly over the last two rounds, but I feel like the whole tournament I hit a lot of greens, and I had a lot of birdie putts coming in, and that was really my goal. I got to my goal of 16 for the score, and once I was there, I knew, I was like, well, let's get to 19 now, and I almost did. So that was good. Q. I heard you talking; you kind of feel good about your -- especially your putting, your short game. That's kind of your strength and everything. Did you think this course kind of played to those strengths or because it was wet it really didn't, or what did you think about it? PETER MALNATI: I mean, the course suits my strengths really well. It allows me to hit -- several of the par-4s I'm able to hit a short iron into. Because of the wetness, the softness of the conditions, I think that sort of neutralized the par-5s. Some of the longer hitters were probably able to get up there in two on the par-5s, but I'd say the majority of the field probably couldn't, so the par-5s became a bit of a wedge contest, which plays right into my hands. Like I said, several of the par-4s give you a short iron; plays right into my hands. And then the two holes that you would kind of pinpoint as being longer holes, 16 and 18, I really played well all week. I hit it in the water on 16 in the first round I remember, but outside of that, I think I made nothing but pars, maybe a birdie or two even on 16 and 18. If I have a week where I'm going to take those long par-4s and play them well, I really feel like that's the week when I'm going to be up there and be in contention, and sure enough, it was this week. Q. How were you feeling about the way you were playing coming in? PETER MALNATI: You know, I sort of would have to say that I limped into the -- at the end of the Web.com season. I was really, really pleased with the year that I had on the Web.com TOUR. I put in a lot of work over the winter, and you know, it really -- I just had a really nice start. I had a win, several top 10s early in the Web.com season, and then over the last portion of the Web.com season, I really didn't play well. Just everything felt just a little off. I never felt like it was far from being good, but it was never good. You know, then I started, and just felt pretty -- like that kind of carried over into the first event of the TOUR schedule out in Napa. But even there, I really felt like I was getting to close to something clicking, and I didn't drive it well enough to have a good tournament in Vegas, but everything else was kind of starting to click. I putted well, iron play was good, wedge play was good. I just was not hitting it in the fairway, and I still managed to shoot under par for four rounds in Vegas, which it's not the world's most difficult golf course, but without ever hitting it in the fairway, I only hit like 30 percent of my fairways for the week, I shot under par. So I knew if I could start driving it well, things were clicking. So I came in here coming off a great week at home last week with some good practice really feeling good. You know, early in the week I still wasn't driving it that well, but as the week went on I started hitting the driver better and better, and I was obviously able to put up some good scores. DOUG MILNE: You mentioned the Web.com TOUR. You're now the fifth first-time winner in as many events this season. What does that speak to about the competition level coming out of the Web.com TOUR and just the new regime here on the PGA TOUR? PETER MALNATI: You know, it's definitely skewing younger, that's for sure. You know, and I still think -- this isn't what you asked me but I'm going to get into it anyway. I still think we have Tiger and the superstars of a few years -- several years ago to thank for this youth movement because Tiger is the guy that -- I guarantee you Justin Thomas was probably, what, how old was he in 2002? Anyone know? Doesn't matter. He was watching Tiger fist pump and dominate and he said, I want to do that. I was a little older than Justin Thomas when Tiger was doing that, but I was still playing baseball and other sports at the time but I thought Tiger Woods was the coolest thing and I wanted to do that. So I think we have Tiger and the good players to thank for this youth movement, but it definitely is, man, it's pervasive. It's crazy to see. There are so many good young players. You watch -- I mean, college golf on TV the other day. I was in the gym here, actually. Really nice gym here at Jackson Country Club. I was in the gym and they had a college golf event was on The Golf Channel, and I'm sitting there watching these kids, and I'm like, I don't know if I want to play against him. I can say this now. I just won a PGA TOUR event and I don't know if I wanted to play against these kids in this college event. Yeah, it's crazy to see the youth movement. You know, I think -- but maybe back to your question now a little bit. I digressed, sorry. I think the Web.com TOUR is such a strong proving ground. I mean, the competition out there, the competition level isn't less on an equal scale as the pay is less out there, I can tell you that. That Tour is very, very competitive. There's definitely -- it does not surprise me that -- I guess with Smylie and myself being two guys that played it full-time this year and Emiliano being a guy that got his TOUR card through the finals, doesn't surprise me a bit to see the success that we're having. Q. Just talk about how difficult, or was it difficult for you to start, stop, start, stop? A lot of the players this week say, hey, we're used to this, but it still has to affect the game, and how do you overcome it? PETER MALNATI: You know, maybe that actually -- maybe that actually heightens my ability to really get into the moment when it is time to play. I don't know that that would make any sense. It doesn't seem to. But my win on the Web.com TOUR this year was in Brazil, and we had similar -- I remember in Brazil having my alarm clock set prior to 4:00 a.m. three days in a row in order to get up and get out there for restarts because we were in Saõ Paulo with 20 million people. It kind of was a little hectic in the mornings. That tournament where I won, we had restarts every day. I think I played my first 18 holes there continuously, and then never played another 18 holes continuously after that. So I would have to say that maybe doing the stop, start, stop, start is actually just a cue for me that keeps me in the present, in the moment, because when they tell us it's time to go play, that's when I'm able to turn it on and focus and be in the moment, and I'm not sure why it would be any easier for me to do that with the stopping and starting, but it seems to work for me. Q. You mentioned staying in the moment. Does that contribute to your lack of leaderboard watching out there perhaps? PETER MALNATI: Well, yeah. I want it to. You know, sometimes I'm out there playing, and when you obviously want to get in contention, you never would -- you never would for a minute have this problem, but sometimes when I'm in the middle of the field, I become like a spectator, and I'm like, oh, look, my buddy, whatever, Smylie is playing good this week. I start looking at the scoreboard for that reason. Obviously that's no good. But you're allowed to do that when you're in the middle of the pack. But today I still caught myself just kind of occasionally just looking at the board, like, oh, look at that -- one of my best buds out here is Billy Hurley. I kept looking and trying to find Billy's name. I don't think he had the weekend that he wanted to. But I was doing that, and it's like, yeah, you don't need to do that. It doesn't matter what Billy is doing right now; you need to do your thing. The leaderboard doesn't help me. I asked my caddie Shane, who's the man, by the way -- appreciate you, Shane. Shane just snuck in. Thank you. I asked my caddie Shane after I hit my iron shot onto the green on 18, I said, Shane, I want to know where we are. I haven't looked in a while. His answer was, let's go hit a good putt just like you have been all week, Mate. He did tell me, though, as we were walking up. He said, you're solo first right now. The guys in front of you are done. Bryce Molder is behind you and has a chance to catch you, so you need to go take care of business up here. Yeah, at that point that was just exciting news to know, but at the same time, I did want to know. If someone is already in, happened to be ahead of me, I didn't think anyone was ahead of me. Could just kind of tell by the energy and The Golf Channel camera guy getting right up behind me on every shot. You can kind of tell that I'm probably not behind. But you never know, and if I had been behind, I would have wanted to know that before I left my 50-footer on the last hole short. But yeah, so to get back to your question after I've rambled for five minutes already, it is important for me to be in the moment. I think it's important for all competitors to be in the moment, and I think we all get there in different ways. For me, knowing what's going on, it couldn't have helped me. I was trying -- my goal was to have birdie putts on every hole, and yeah, maybe if I was two behind I would have tried to have a shorter birdie putt, be a little more aggressive with my irons, but my goal was to have a birdie putt on every hole. That didn't need to change if I was three back or three ahead. I needed to have a birdie putt on every hole. That was kind of my key, and yeah, I didn't need the leaderboard to help me with that. I was just trying to stay in that moment and get myself a birdie putt. Q. And as you look ahead, what is the one thing that you think will change the most for you after a day like today? PETER MALNATI: Well, I won't look at Tour Links for the next two years to see where I am in the field for an event. I've already thought -- I was thinking ahead, and I'm going to give a shameless plug right now. I've got a great sponsor in MLB.com. The guys there are -- they're really innovative and they're doing stuff outside the world of baseball, too, which is -- they're cool. But one relationship that they have, they have a relationship with the Thunderbirds in Phoenix, and I've been talking to them about, I know not too many people know who Peter Malnati is, but let's try to get Peter Malnati a spot in Phoenix because guys off the Web.com TOUR don't get in that event. I don't have to look at Tour Links now. I'll be in that event. And that's really cool. So that's one thing that I've thought about a little bit is I won't have to be looking at the field list every week going, all right, where am I, I'm three out, that stinks. I'll probably be able to get into most -- not all, but most of the events that I want to get into. I'll be able to have a little bit of say-so in my schedule, whereas as a rookie out here and even just through this short part of this young season so far, it's like, okay, if I get in the field, I am playing. That is all there is to it. I don't care if my pinky is falling off, I'm playing because I got in the field. Somewhat like if I still think -- well, I have to get ready. I still think we're going to play a lot, but we'll be able to be -- we'll be able to look at the schedule and actually maybe pick an event to take off here and there, which is something we didn't have that luxury before. They forced us to take events off by not giving us a spot. So that's pretty cool. DOUG MILNE: Peter, congratulations on your first PGA TOUR victory here at the Sanderson Farms Championship. PETER MALNATI: Thank you. Mr. Sanderson, I said it down on the green and I'm going to say it again in here. I get excited knowing that I have a healthy place to play golf, a healthy place to work my craft, and knowing that this event is going to be here for another 10 years I think is a really big deal. It's a really big deal, I know, to the TOUR, and even though I don't know that all the players are really aware enough to realize it, it's a really big deal to us, too, so thank you very, very much for stepping up and doing that. JOE SANDERSON: Thank you for saying that. Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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