Peter Malnati made a key birdie on the penultimate hole to win the Valspar Championship and his first PGA Tour title in nine years.
The 36-year-old American fired a four-under-par 67 in the final round to complete 72 holes on 12-under 272 for a two-stroke triumph over countryman Cameron Young at Innisbrook’s Copperhead course in Palm Harbor, Florida.
“You wonder if you’re ever going to do it again,” a tearful Malnati said, pausing at times and his voice cracking with emotion. “It’s hard. In the nine years since my last win, it has gotten a lot harder too.
“The level of talent out here, guys coming out when they are 20 years old and they are ready to play on this stage and they are so good. You just wonder.
“And so to have this moment, it just feels so amazing.”
Malnati, ranked 184th, had only one title in 258 prior career PGA Tour starts, that coming in the 2015 Sanderson Farms Championship.
More than 3,000 days later, Malnati celebrated with his family on the 18th green.
“I’m just so thankful,” he said. “You can’t describe it.”
Malnati began the day two strokes behind 54-hole leader Keith Mitchell, who finished in a share of 17th after a closing 77, and was tied with Young on 11 under as they reached the last two holes.
Malnati dropped his tee shot at the par-three 17th six feet from the hole and sank the tension-packed putt to seize the lead.
At 18, Young’s tee shot went way left under trees and he made a three-putt bogey, missing a nine-footer for par to fall two adrift of Malnati, who closed with a par to clinch the emotional victory.
“I told myself I was going to do my best on every shot and that was what I did,” Malnati said. “I was so nervous coming down the stretch.”
Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes and American Chandler Phillips shared third on nine-under 275 with Americans Xander Schauffele and Ryan Moore, China’s Carl Yuan and Canada’s Adam Hadwin on eight-under 276.
World No 23 Young (26) missed out on his first career PGA Tour title but settled for his seventh runner-up finish, his first since last year’s WGC Match Play.
“It was just a bad time for a pull,” Young said of his final tee shot. “Just kind of started it on the wrong side of the wind and it was blowing pretty good off the right.
“I think I handled my own thoughts really well and, for me, that’s a big win regardless of the outcome.”
Malnati had missed the green and made bogey at the par-three 4th but answered with a 14-foot birdie at the 6th, then reeled off three birdies in a row to start the back nine, the most impressive of them a 15-foot putt at the 12th to reach 11 under par.
Young opened birdie-bogey and added a birdie putt at the par-three 4th from just inside 10 feet. He birdied the par-five 11th after pitching from a greenside bunker to within four feet, then made a six feet birdie putt at the 12th and a tap-in birdie at the par-five 14th to match Malnati for the lead.
South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout ended on seven-under 277 after a final-round 67 that included five birdies and a bogey.
© Agence France-Presse
Photo: Julio Aguilar/Getty Images
