Peter Malnati’s last win on the PGA Tour came at the 2024 Valspar Championship.
Over the last two years, the 39-year-old has failed to make it to the weekend almost two dozen times and admitted “the struggle has been real.”
Nonetheless, he came into Detroit Golf Club this week determined to flip the script following his latest missed cut at the 3M Open six days ago.
“I was kind of at a low point last week,” Malnati said. “I worked really hard on some stuff and it just didn’t quite work and I played awful. So, this week I was really determined to have a bit of a new mindset.”
The adjustment seems to be working.
Malnati shot a career-low 61 to claim the clubhouse lead following his bogey-free first round at the Rocket Classic.
The father of two confessed that he was horrible to himself last week after how he played and lamented, “I felt awful.”
This week he made a decision to approach the game differently and he said he could feel it working from the first tee.
“I was going to really enjoy my good shots and when I hit bad shots, I wasn’t going to let that be a reflection of me and who I am. I was going to let it be like a data set. Like what’s going on and how can I improve. I really felt that today on the course,” Malnati explained.
He came out the gate on Thursday guns blazing and birdied eight out of first 11 holes.
Armed with his new mental tools, Malnati appeared to play freer and credited his fast start to staying in the present for a change. He said prior to today, he’s been carrying a lot of anxiety along with him on the course because he knows he’s not ready to give up his childhood dream of playing golf, but also knows he needs to play better to make that happen.
“I didn’t feel the same level of like anxiety of like if I hit a bad shot, it means I suck,” Malnati said. “I just felt, ‘I’m going to enjoy the good ones. If I hit a bad one, I’m going to figure out why and how can I improve.’ That mindset was really, really helpful for me.”
He knows he needs to come out in a similar headspace on Friday if he’s going to have success this weekend: take the good shots along with the bad, learn and move forward. But not focusing another low number.
“If I come out tomorrow and try to or expect to or want to have a chance to shoot 59 again, that’s probably not the right thing to do,” Malnati admitted on Thursday.
While he’s aiming to stay present for a good finish this weekend, he’s also focused on the future.
Malnati said he’s been talking to his coach over the last few weeks about his goal to be in the top 100 players at the end of the fall.
“It’s like the iceberg, they say, I’m building and building, there’s a lot going on below the surface so hopefully this is just the tip of it.”
