Two years ago, with the sun setting on the Copperhead Course, Petru Malnati was overcome with emotion. It had been 3,058 days since Malnati had won on the PGA Tour in 2015 at Sanderson Farms, and he had just survived a packed classification on a rough course to win the Valspar Championship and claim the security and confidence that comes with a trophy.
After his final putt fell, Malnati’s tears flowed as he described the trials and tribulations that any PGA Tour player faces as they try to build a career, provide financial stability for their family and stay in a time of untold talent at the highest level of golf.
“You wonder if you’re going to do it again,” Malnati said as she held her son that day in Tampa. “It’s hard. In the nine years since my last win, it’s gotten a lot harder. … You just wonder.
“Life is hard. It’s obviously glamorous sometimes like this and it’s absolutely my dream job and it’s amazing. But life is really, really hard even when you’re trying to figure out how to live this lifestyle and have two kids and be everything you want to be. It’s really hard.”
This emotional victory came with a two-year exemption – the job security that allowed Malnati, a regular FedEx Cup bubble boy, to breathe, knowing that he still had his “dream job” for a little while longer. That exemption ends this year, and Malnati’s results have left him scrambling to keep up this fall. He’s made just 11 of 23 cuts this season. His best finish was a T19 at the Byron Nelson CJ Cup. He finished 169th in the FedEx Cup standings, which means he entered the fall needing to play the type of golf he hadn’t played since his magical victory at Valspar to jump into the top 100 and maintain playing privileges.
Malnati went T17-CUT-T25-CUT through his the first four FedEx Cup Fall eventsputting him at 157 entering this week World technology championship at El Cardonal in Diamante in Los Cabos. With only three events, the 39-year-old Malnati needed to conjure up something to keep his dream alive.
In golf, one swing, one swing or a tournament can change everything. Naturally, with his back against the wall, Peter Malnati shot an opening round 66 and backed it up with an 8-under 64 on Friday to head into the weekend in second place, one shot behind leader Ben James.
Just like that, Malnati, the floppy-hat-wearing yellow-ball grinder, has his dream job within his grasp.
“The pressure I feel is that I love my job. This is what I strived for,” Malnati said on Friday after his return to play for his job. “I feel a lot of pressure because I’m not ready to do this. It looks like the game, because there are so many really talented players, and the PGA Tour is working so hard to make sure that the best players from wherever they are in the world end up playing here, as if you fall from the PGA Tour, it might not be easy to return to the PGA Tour.”
But Malnati quickly noted that even if his FedEx Fall shipment fails, his family’s financial future is secure. His grind is not to put food on the table, as it is for many this time of year. It’s about believing that he has more in the tank. That 39-year-old Petru Malnati still has good golf to play that would make 14-year-old Petru Malnati proud, the one who dreamed of playing on the PGA Tour. To do that, he has to shoot the scores to keep in the fight at the highest level of professional golf.
“My family’s future is secure, at least for a while. As the PGA Tour has given us a wonderful life,” said Malnati. “I played quite well and it was quite wise for a while, as the pressure is not that my family is going to starve and I’m really thankful for that.
But the pressure is this is what I like to do and I don’t think I have done it to the best of my ability even in life. I think I have more. It needs to be out there with a chance to find out, so that’s the pressure I feel.”
He will have to overcome that pressure this weekend as he looks to catch 23-year-old James, secure two more years on the PGA Tour, and earn a spot in the 2028 Championship Series.
Two years ago, with his latest triumph still sinking in, Malnati described a moment he had long imagined – winning on the PGA Tour with his wife and children there to celebrate. It was a moment that Petru Malnati had summoned in his mind since high school, but he was sure it would never come. When he did, it brought peace and pride, but also the realization that his Valspar winning moment might be the top of the mountain for him.
“You don’t know if you’ll ever have another moment like this,” Malnati said. “Pretty amazing to have that dream come to life.”
With 36 weekend holes in Mexico, Peter Malnati can show that he has even more good golf to give and more dreams to realize.
