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FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSICJune 5, 2014Peter MalnatiMEMPHIS, TENNESSEE Q. Peter Malnati, a great round to finish it off the way did you out of the weather delay, birdie birdie. You had to sit around for three and a half hours and to put that, to go birdie, birdie that would be a pretty good jump start back night. PETER MALNATI: No doubt. It had been some negative thoughts rolling around in my head for most of the year, honestly. Just in the last couple of weeks I've kind of gotten it turned around. I kept telling my wife I'm going to be wandering around in there. I was fine. I was thinking heck, I was actually thinking good thoughts, which is really nice because it's been not the greatest year but to come out of it and I expected to come out of and play well. It was really good. Q. Not many starts left. You have this week, given your position and everything kind of almost freed you a little bit just go for it? PETER MALNATI: Yeah. I mean you are right. There's not many starts. I'm really, really trying hard to kind of just think about, you know, just go out and playing golf, having fun. I think if I play golf the way that I can, the way that it helped me have such a cool year last year and get out here on Tour but not having a very nice start -- it took me six starts last year and I went to no status to whatever they call the special temporary deal. It doesn't take too many starts. We all know that. I'm not too worried about that. Obviously it's definitely my goal is to keep my Tour card for sure.  So, yeah, I mean it's on my mind. I'm just trying to play golf again. Q. 23 putts today. What was the key to success? PETER MALNATI: 23 putts? Wow! Missing a few greens on fringes, probably. No. I rolled the ball well. I've been playing well.  That's always been a strength of my game and this year has been really cold, really, really cold. It's nothing I've lost faith in. Certainly haven't tried to change anything or fix anything. It's been cold. It's about time for it to get up. In fact, 23, that's statistically, that's really good. Q. Peter Malnati, after weather delay you came out and took advantage of it with a couple of birdies. What allowed you to do that? How was the course playing after that? PETER MALNATI: The course is definitely -- the greens were more receptive which you would expect but they're still rolling pure which is nice and the wind changed directions a little bit but it's fairly calm. Not too much of a factor. So, conditions I would say definitely came out of delay easier than it went in. The wind was blowing fairly steadily and quite hard. Q. You grew up on the other side of Tennessee, you have family and wife here that will allow you to play in front of a comfortable area. For you as a rookie who is trying to make sure you maintain your card, what is the factor having some familiarity with playing in Memphis? PETER MALNATI: Memphis is my home state. 400 miles from home but this is my home state and I definitely -- my mom and my wife are both here which has been rare so far this year to have that family. So, it helps. It's all about comfort, really, and that's kind of been for me the biggest challenge this year is trying to find something of a comfort level here on Tour and to have my wife out there watching and my mom, a very familiar face in the gallery. That definitely helps. Q. Good playing on this day. PETER MALNATI: Thank you very much. Q. Great round. Obviously the rain didn't seem to bother you whatsoever. PETER MALNATI: Heck, no.  I don't know. I kept wandering around up there and I was just going to be ready whenever we got the chance to play again. I didn't know if it was going to be tomorrow morning or 30 minutes after the horn blew in the first place. Just going to be ready. Turned out I was. It was great. Q. How much different was the course playing? PETER MALNATI: The greens were softer which really helps especially it could have been a tough pin on 9 right there. But it was much softer after the delay. So it wasn't as hard. Nice. But really the wind, definitely, the biggest difference was the wind has laid down, you know, pretty much entirely. Q. When you go in and you realize you're a shot off the lead or whatever with a few holes left to go, do you put that smile on your face knowing, man, if I get out there and it gets soft, it might be my name at the top of the leaderboard and lo and behold there it is. PETER MALNATI: It's pretty cool. I know better than, though, to do that on Thursday. I'm not going the sit here and lie and certainly later in the week that name still at the top it will be on my mind. I'll be thinking about it. Thursday is too early for that. I was -- I was excited to get out there because I knew I could -- a couple more birdies and just -- it was a great start to get a couple more -- it was a tough golf course, really tough golf course. Get it in the red numbers early and just kind of free you up. You don't -- if you have to go out and attack this golf course you have to go make a lot of birdies, you can get in some real trouble. To be under par early like this is good. Q. Tennessee Boy now, how much do you draw on that, realizing that you're in your home state and trying to win the tournament here? PETER MALNATI: It's really nice to be here in my home state. I'm 400 miles from home. Little deceiving to say home town event. But home state and I feel some support here. I know I grew up playing golf, amateur events here in Memphis. I know families here and my mom and my wife are here and yeah, it does. It feels -- it's certainly a home state event. Q. East and West Tennessee, sometimes they don't get along. Are you hoping maybe the West Tennessee golf fans will support you over here? PETER MALNATI: That would be great. Q. If you happen to be top of the leaderboard with some of the names and -- PETER MALNATI: No doubt. That's really cool. It's one thing for me -- heck, what is it, June 5th? Twelve months ago I was playing in a mini Tour event. Now I had a text that said during the rain delay, "Go out and get a birdie, you'll beat Phil." It's not my goal to beat Phil today. I want to beat them all. That's a neat thing. Q. What's the history of like a professional having the first round lead for you? PETER MALNATI: I don't know. I honestly don't even -- I didn't -- I was not anywhere near the led when I won on the Web.com Tour last year. I got better all four rounds when I won. So, I mean I don't really know. I played some really great first rounds and I mean I think I had a first round lead once on the E Golf Tour and that was -- I won that week. That was my only win on that Tour. There you go. That's the only one I can remember. Perfect track record. Q. So you try not to get too caught up in the fact that you're leading after 18 hospital? PETER MALNATI: Thursday is tough. You got to know better than to do that. I'm not even leading after 18 holes. I'm leading after one wave of 18 holes. With it being as calm as it is now and the greens being soft, someone could shoot something in the low 60s right now. It's out there right now with the greens soft. Heck, I'll take it though. I'm happy. Q. How could you kind of keep going or get your spirits up? PETER MALNATI: It's been hard. I needed a kick in the butt. Actually because my play at -- I played at Web.com two weeks the ago at Raleigh, North Carolina. I made a cut -- I haven't made a cut on either Tour since Puerto Rico, since March. I have haven't made a cut since then. It's been in the doldrums. My mom caddied for me, two weeks I played in Raleigh. My mom caddied for me. She's done it before. She's not a golfer but she knows enough not to get in anybody's way. She caddied for me. "I'm not going to try to get in your business shoes. I've never seen you like this before, you're really negative, you're down. Never seen you like that." Coming from my mom that was a kick in the butt and big wake up call. I kind of thought about it a little bit and she's right, I've been definitely been looking at things from a little bit different perspective, think about myself, I've been getting unlucky enough. I never worried about that. I'm looking at some of the breaks I get. Kind of been complaining I wish I would get more stars on Tour. Didn't worry about that stuff. Got to be ready when I do get a chance. That was a kick in the butt to me to kind get my attitude back in line. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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