SANDERSON FARMS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 4, 2020

Peter Malnati

Country Club of Jackson

Quick Quotes

Q. I don't know if anybody has more fun when they're not playing well, but watching you today you made it look easy. Rolling in that 33-footer at 17, ridiculous. How did it feel for you?

PETER MALNATI: Good. No, it's funny, I mean, this game -- this is my dream job, and I get to do it every day, and it beats me up and it's so hard, and the competition out here is so strong, and you fail so much. To have a day like today -- I mean, I have no idea the outcome. There are a lot of birdie opportunities on the back nine, but what I did out there today felt like -- it just felt awesome. I feel like I won the tournament. I probably won't, but I feel like I did, and it's amazing.

Q. Let's talk about that because you've won here before. In fact it was the last time in this position on the PGA TOUR. I normally don't ask players if they have a number in mind, but was this on your mind today before you went out?

PETER MALNATI: Not really. I knew better -- of course I was five back going into the day. I knew I loved this golf course. I knew I'd been playing really well and feeling like I was this close to a low one. So I knew that everything could line up to be in a position, but I really wasn't thinking about a number at all. I definitely fell out of that Top 125 category last season, didn't play particularly well, so I'm actually not in the field for Vegas next week, and I actually wanted to play there, so I was thinking about the top 10 a little bit, and it looks like I'm going to get that.

Q. You have your family here, your one-year-old child. How are you all going to spend the next couple of hours?

PETER MALNATI: I'm literally staying walking distance from the club. I might go hop in the pool with my boy. You thought I looked like I was having fun out there today? You should see him in the water. It's amazing.

One more thing. Bobby Bray, I know you're watching TV right now. Thank you so much for everything. Bobby taught me how to play, never charged me a sent, and he's had a rough go these last few years, so Bobby, thank you so much, you're the man.

Q. 32-31, 63. Is that quite possibly the best round of golf you've ever had on the PGA TOUR?

PETER MALNATI: Yeah, I'd be hard pressed to find a better one than that. Yeah, that was just great. I've really been playing well all week and feeling like I was kind of on the cusp of putting together a low one. To go out and do it on a Sunday at a place that is so special to me, man, what a day.

Q. You had some big shots, but the one at 15 over near the tree line, the vines hanging down, I thought it was going to mess up your backswing. How did you pull off that second shot?

PETER MALNATI: Luck. So I was trying -- I got -- hit a bad tee shot, got lucky to have my ball somewhere where I could hit it, and then I was looking at it and I thought if I hit a great shot here, I can get it over on the -- I guess from the fairway it would be the back right part of the green and give myself 50 feet, but uphill into the grain, I thought I can get out of here with a par after that tee shot. I hit the pitch shot and I really hit just absolutely perfectly but I didn't carry it quite far enough and it landed in the fluffy Bermuda rough and it killed it out there to probably five or six feet and then -- my goal there was to hit a great shot to hit it to 40 feet and I hit it to six feet. That's the kind of stuff that has to happen when you've got it going your way, so I'll just take it.

Q. Five years ago when you won you were 18-under par here, now you're 18-under again. Do you think you've done enough to maybe win this thing for the second time?

PETER MALNATI: The back nine today I feel like the weather as it has been all week is absolutely perfect. The back nine there are lots and lots of birdie opportunities, but yeah, you've got to be in position, if you're out of position off the tee those birdie opportunities are working hard for par opportunities. I think -- in the position I'm in right now, I doubt that will hold up to be the winning score, but it's in there with a chance, so that's pretty cool.

Q. What do you do with yourself now over the next hour and 15 minutes?

PETER MALNATI: Go hop in the pool with my little boy and then come back.

Q. What made you feel like you were close?

PETER MALNATI: Just pristine ball-striking for the last several years, fairways, greens -- no, I'm kidding. I've really struggled with my long game, consistency in my long game I should say. I've had weeks where I've been good, but I've really struggled with consistency for the last several years. I've been good in stretches but very short stretches and a lot of up and down.

Last week in the Dominican Republic I really hit the ball nicely. It's kind of a generous golf course so it kind of put you in a little bit of a comfort zone off the tee with the big wide fairways, but I felt like I got in a little bit of a groove, and this week I played nine holes on Tuesday, felt really good, I played all 18 holes in the pro-am on Wednesday and just felt really good all day, and then Thursday, Friday, Saturday I felt like I'm hitting it well enough to really shoot a low one and things were going to be just a touch off here, a touch off there, missed the putt here -- to have that the last week and this week, my swing has felt comfortable to me, and I know that my short game and putting are going to be good. I just need to be in a position to use them. And so that's what I felt like all week this week.

Q. You were talking about going to the pool to pass the time. How much more comforting is it to have your family here, your wife as your caddie?

PETER MALNATI: Yeah, it's amazing. She's caddied for me before and been an all-star caddie. To have my family with me, it really means a lot to me. It's always been kind of my PGA TOUR dream since I was a little kid was not just the image of holding up the trophy but the image of having wife and kid or kids come down on the 18th green and get to give them a hug and a kiss. That's been my real PGA TOUR dream. Obviously COVID is putting a little damper on that right now with the rules we have to follow, and I was two hours ahead of the final group anyway, so it's not like we're going to celebrate yet, if we get to at all. But yeah, having them with me is -- honestly, that's what it's all about. It's really cool.

Q. What's it taken to get more consistent because you said your ball-striking was just kind of -- tiny little windows where you were really good but then would fall out of it. Have you done anything --

PETER MALNATI: Not yet. Just trusting -- this is such a golfer cliche. Trusting the process. I've been -- I know my swing has idiosyncrasies. I've thought about attacking some of them, but with the year-round PGA TOUR schedule, there's never a time to take a two-month break to work on a golf swing. And I don't play well when I'm thinking about technical thoughts. So kind of the key that I actually -- ironically I felt terrible on Tuesday in the Dominican Republic last week, was hitting it awful, and the only thing was just find some balance, just find some balance, swing with some good rhythm, find some balance, and those big wide fairways down there really tempted you to take a rip at it because the fairways down there probably average being 50 or 60 yards wide in the Dominican, and instead of giving in to that I was like, I'm going to commit to just balance and rhythm all week, and I striped it. I hit it plenty far when I do that. I don't lose distance doing that. That's just sort of been -- I've been really committed to that last week and then this week, as well, just having that sense of rhythm.

Obviously anyone that was watching golf on TV, anyone that -- my swing is not Adam Scott-esque. It has a little bit of, I'll say -- idiosyncrasy was a good word. But when I give myself the time to sync everything up, pretty brilliant.

Q. Pretty unique trophy here at this tournament. How do you feel about the rooster already having one at home?

PETER MALNATI: Yeah, I'm all about symmetry, so I need two of them to put on both sides of the mantel, so let's go. Come on, guys out there, be kind to me. I need two roosters.

Q. Where do you keep the current one?

PETER MALNATI: I've got an office down stairs. It's not exactly on main display for guests as they walk in, but I see it every day when I go down there.

Q. How old is your son?

PETER MALNATI: Let's see, today is the 4th. In 15 days he'll have his one-year birthday, so it'll be really cool.