MJ, Tiger… Malnati? Why Malnati believes his win resonated with fans

Peter Malnati knows he isn’t Scottie Scheffler.

Even after Sunday’s victory at the Valspar Championship, Malnati doesn’t have anywhere close to the trophies; he now owns two career PGA Tour victories to Scheffler’s eight in half the number of seasons.

He also doesn’t move on as quickly from those wins as Scheffler and the rest of the game’s stars.

“Maybe they’re so good at winning that they just – it’s normal for them, and they’re right back in their normal routine the next day,” Malnati said Wednesday in Houston, where he’s in the field for the Texas Children’s Houston Open. “It certainly isn’t the case for me yet. So, there was definitely the thought on Sunday night and Monday morning like, oh, my goodness, I could use a week to just wrap my head around this like new reality that I have.”

Malnati added: “I would not say I’m entirely focused yet on playing and working again, I still am enjoying it a little bit, but starting to get back into that mode of like wanting to do my job and keep building from here.”

Malnati’s job, at least on Thursday and Friday at Memorial Park, will be done alongside Scheffler and Will Zalatoris in a featured group. That’s unfamiliar territory for the 36-year-old Missouri product, who has been out on Tour for a decade but have cracked the top five just three other times aside from his two wins.

Yet, for as much as the stars have been the focus of talks discussing the Tour’s path into the future, it’s Malnati’s victory at Valspar that seemed to resonate greatly with fans – or at least that’s what one reporter posed when asking Malnati about that sentiment; it’s worth noting that viewership was down for the event this year. If it did, in fact, resonate, perhaps it’s because of Malnati’s post-round interview, which went viral after Malnati got emotional.

That reaction, Malnati says, could’ve been refreshing to an audience that has heard about nothing but dollar signs in recent years as it pertains to professional golf.

“We can all probably remember when we were kids, and we were all kids at different times, but the things that moved us that we watched, I remember watching Jordan and the ’97 Bulls, I remember watching Tiger in the 2000 Masters; I didn’t care one iota what Jordan’s contract was. I didn’t care one iota what the winner’s check at that U.S. Open was,” Malnati said. “And I think people are sick of that. I think people are just sick of the narrative in golf being about, you know, contracts on LIV, purses on the Tour, guaranteed comp on the Tour. I think people are so sick of that. They want to see sport, they want to see people who are the best in the world at what they do, do it at a high level and celebrate that, celebrate the athleticism, celebrate the achievement.

“Obviously, this is a business and to the top players who drive a lot of the value in this business, we’ve got to compensate them fairly, we’ve got to make that happen. But I think we’re doing that above and beyond, and the narrative, the storylines, the conversation needs to come back to the product on the course and what we do. … I just feel like no kid dreamed when they were watching Jordan dreamed of having his salary, they didn’t care about that. They dreamed of being in that moment, hitting that shot. I think that’s what our fans care about too and that’s what they want to see.

“I hope those tears that I was crying on that 18th green had nothing to do with my share of that, what was it, an $8.4 million purse last week? My tears had nothing to do with my share of that. I’m going to enjoy it and we’re going to use it to do a lot of good in this world, but it had nothing to do with that. And I don’t think our fans care about that either. I hope that connected with some people and I hope that that can be – I do think everyone out here who plays and competes would agree with me on that.

“I just hope that can be the story that we tell, can come back to the best athletes in the world competing on the biggest stage in the world and doing it to show off this amazing skill that we have that can be so entertaining for people. I want that to be our story.”