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WYNDHAM CHAMPIONSHIP

August 18, 2016

Peter Malnati

Greensboro, North Carolina

Q. Peter, real nice stuff today, 4-under on the back-9 which is your front. Make the turn, get it back to 5-under and your finish. Your you thoughts on how it went today.
PETER MALNATI: It's fun to play well. I played nice. I hit -- I'm pretty sure I didn't miss a fairway. I hit the ball really nicely, was in good position off the tee and, yeah, everyone says this but I feel like I actually on my second 9 holes I could have done a lot better and that's pretty good when you shoot a little stress-free, 1-under on the back, my back-9. Could have been better. That's a good deal.

Q. Let's talk about your year. You win early, Sanderson Farms, pretty good golf. This last stretch making the weekend was really hard. Was there something wrong in what was going on?
PETER MALNATI: I really played poorly for a good stretch, for quite a long stretch from kind of February through I'll say like June, I just really played poorly. My game was off. I wasn't putting well which is kind of what I hang my hat on and, on top of that, I wasn't hitting the ball well, either. But then since about I think I started to click the second day at Congressional.

I missed a cut by quite a bit there. I really felt like it was starting to come together and then I just was putting a little too much pressure on myself the wasn't getting much out of my game so I was still missing cuts.

In practice and even on the course sometimes it felt like it was coming back. It's been feeling very, very good for the last, you know, at least month, probably month or six weeks, it's been feeling really good. It's nice to see the results starting to turn around.

Q. With the Playoffs looming and you're definitely in, you're inside the 100 mark, how do you feel about the Playoffs with your game coming together?
PETER MALNATI: What better time to start playing well, you know? It's pretty cool. I know anything can happen once you get into the Playoffs and the points go way up and all that stuff.

I'm going to try to just keep taking care of golf. If I can keep improving, I think I can make a deep run into the Playoffs, which will be cool.

Q. Good stuff. Good luck the rest of the way.
PETER MALNATI: Thanks, Bill.

Q. Peter, great day. Get some comments on your 1st Round.
PETER MALNATI: I played nice. I drove the ball in the fairway which is important out here. The course is in such good shape. With the -- with it being firm, the ball is bouncing quite a bit. You really got to be in control of keeping it in the fairway.

If you're out of the fairway it gives you quite a challenge into the greens. I think I hit most or all the fairways today so that was really important and, on top of that, I was doing everything fairly well. So, that was good.

Q. The scores were a little bit lower this afternoon. Something about the condition that caused that?
PETER MALNATI: You think they were lower?

Q. Higher.
PETER MALNATI: I would have thought higher.

No matter how good the greens are -- and these are absolutely perfect greens -- they don't stay pure with 156 people walking on them. I noticed it a lot when we made the turn to our second 9.

The greens are still absolutely beautiful and in perfect shape but they just get a lot of wear and tear from the feet and so it's harder to make putts in the afternoon typically and when you get on a course that's as pure as this, you'll really see a difference morning to afternoon just in the pureness of the greens which makes a difference out here for sure.

Q. How good was 7-under from the morning group? But it seemed like you guys took awhile to get into a rhythm here in the afternoon or whatnot and (inaudible)
PETER MALNATI: I don't really know about that. We're out there on Thursday -- I bet we can all see on the board that there were some 7-unders. I don't think we really think about that too much. I know I don't. No, I don't really know. Just out there trying to do our best to get the tournament started and in a positive way.

Q. How important was it for your psyche to play four rounds last week?
PETER MALNATI: Yeah. I mean it makes -- it was something that makes a big difference. It's kind of hard -- I mean it definitely gets in your head. I don't think a lot of us out here would say we're trying to be mentally tough and we all are but that cut line is a big obstacle and definitely -- it's definitely something that has really affected me and the way I think and it's gotten me down this year, beat me up a little bit so to kind of -- I actually played great last week at John Deere but I still felt a big hurdle on Friday.

So, to get over it and get in the clubhouse with a good enough score to play in the weekend was big for me last week. It was.

Q. What does did the final round do for you? You didn't close it out like you wanted, to actually see a round and take it low like that.
PETER MALNATI: That's what -- you know, there are times -- you obviously go through a stretch and, again, I'd like to think -- I'd like to be mentally tough enough not to let a tough stretch bother me. I went 6, 7 months without really, hardly -- I didn't make a weekend. I played the weekend at Valero. Other than that I didn't really make a cut.

You know, I'm mentally tough enough to know I'm good and know I belong but you start to have doubts creep in and to play the way I did on Sunday reminded me of why I'm a winner on this Tour and why I'm, you know, why I'm out here, why I'm successful, how I got here in the first place, and Sunday at John Deere was the first time that I've really felt like I was in that groove again, the same kind of groove I've been in, I was in that in Sanderson Farms for sure.

I've been there a time or two before I felt like I could hit every iron slot at the flag, I could hole every putt and Sunday at John Deere was the first time I felt that in a good while.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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