In his first 10 starts to the 2020-21 season, Peter Malnati posted four finishes inside the top-15, each a six-figure payday: runner-up ($719k), T5 ($259k), T14 ($113k), and T10 ($168k). Before the calendar even flipped to February he’d already earned $1,349,207.
He’s not earned a penny since.
Following a T10 at the Farmers Insurance Open in late January, Malnati has entered eight PGA Tour events and missed every single cut. He missed two in February (Pebble, Genesis), three in March (Bay Hill, Players, Honda), and three more in April (Valero, Heritage, Valspar).
His stat line looks like this: MC-MC-MC-MC-MC-MC-MC-MC.
Yet, the 33-year old Indiana native seems to live by the mantra of “clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose” – the quote made famous by the hit series ‘Friday Night Lights.’
Malnati understands things could be a heck of a lot worse than playing golf on the PGA Tour.
And – no matter what the most recent scorecard may show, by waking up every day as a member of the PGA Tour, he’s winning at life.
“Missed cuts are a part of the business. That’s not to say it’s easy, but I do think I did a nice job — I never woke up Saturday morning and said I need to go find something new. I need to find a new philosophy, a new swing, a new anything. That is important I feel like for me,” said Malnati, when asked about panicking amid his missed-cut streak.
“I think there has to be some sense of remembering, you know, you didn’t — no one made it to the PGA Tour by fluke or by accident.
“We made it out here because we did a lot of things right and played a lot of good golf. So there’s something innately good in what we did to get here and I try to remember that even when I get in one of those down times.”
He continued, “I’ve had some Friday nights and Saturday morning when I was just really bummed, really down. It stinks.
“But at the end of the day, I get to wake up every morning and I’m playing golf on the PGA Tour.
“Probably played well enough already this year to guarantee I get to do it this year and next year.
“That’s a dream come true. So my goodness, how bad can it be.”
Malnati’s positive approach may be paying off. In the opening round of the Wells Fargo Championship, Malnati shot a 67 and was T4 on 4-under par.
