Q. What was it like yesterday playing 18 out here?
PETER MALNATI: You know, I had so many expectations and so many -- I had heard so much that it seemed like one of those situations where I almost -- it could only be a letdown because I was so incredibly excited, and it wasn't a letdown. There's just so many times on the course where you get to a spot and you're like, wow. You just say wow. I think the highlight, when you hit your tee shot on 11 and you're walking to it, you get to the top of the hill, and you can see 11 green, the entire hole of 12, the azaleas hidden back toward 13 tee, the bend in the fairway on 13, so that spot from the top of the hill on 11, it's truly -- for a golfer and someone who's dreamed of playing at the highest level, that was -- I had high expectations for it, and it exceeded them.
Q. How many tickets do you get, and what that's been like, doing all the shuffling, getting people in and out?
PETER MALNATI: Yeah, I'm like a journaler, note taker, and ironically not on golf courses. I don't have any notes about golf courses, but in life I'm a journaler, and I carry a pad of graph paper. So I made a chart, and I've got my eight spots -- it's a seven-day week. I get eight tickets per day, and it's really difficult to do that because so many people have helped me get to this point, and I wanted to realize all of them in the ways that I can.
But those eight spots over seven days filled up very quickly.
Q. Who's the most random person on the list? Obviously none of them are random but maybe to us, like your algebra teacher from second grade --
PETER MALNATI: There's cool stories like that for sure. Obviously there's family, which makes sense. Kind of a cool story which I'll tell. In 2009 my last year of college, I graduated in May of 2009, I played U.S. Amateur qualifying that summer in Kansas City. I was paired with a guy who at the time was probably -- it was 2009, he was probably 47 or 48. He had played a couple USGA events, he had played golf at Wake Forest, and I met him that day, and he has his own financial advising practice with a few partners.
He's gone on now, he advises my wife and I, but he just became a really good friend that day. Just a random pairing at U.S. Amateur qualifying over 36 holes has resulted in this guy who's been incredibly kind, generous, helpful to me, and he's here. He's got an event this weekend that he needs to get home for, but he's here Monday through Thursday, and it all started with a random pairing at U.S. Amateur qualifying.
Q. Any crazy dreams these past few weeks? Can you describe one of them?
PETER MALNATI: No, I haven't. My recurring golf nightmare is that the hole is cut on top of a table and I can't get my ball to stay on top of it. I feel like that could almost actually come true out here, so I'm going to be thankful I haven't had that dream lately, that nightmare lately.
Q. How many invitations to play here have you turned down?
PETER MALNATI: I mean, not 10, but more than a handful. It's pretty cool, I have obviously amazing friends, and having spent now 10 years on the TOUR, I've been connected -- but yeah, I'm 36 now. At 36 it was still an easy no because I always believed I would have this moment. If I got to be 46 I might have had a change of heart on that one.
Q. When was the last one you got that you turned down?
PETER MALNATI: You know, I would say I've gotten a couple within the last -- I've gotten a couple within the last two years that I said no to because I always believed I would have this moment. I joke, it's a sign of how spoiled all of us are on the PGA TOUR, but I'm never, ever, ever -- maybe this will change when I have adult kids and they're out of the house, but I will never take a golf vacation. There is no golf course cool enough for me to go because I do this 30 weeks a year and I play some of the best golf courses in the world.
Now having seen this place, it might be worth it. But I'm still -- I'm going to stand by that. I'm not going to take a golf vacation, at least not in this phase of life.
Q. When you factor in the eclipse factor, what does that add to the experience?
PETER MALNATI: My four-year old who is obviously a big part of my career and a huge part of my life, he came home from -- he goes to a little Montessori school, he goes to Knoxville Montessori, and he came home on Friday, and I guess they had talked about the eclipse, and he was so distraught that we didn't have our eclipse glasses. So of course with Amazon, you can have anything you want in a day or two. So we got our eclipse glasses, and his excitement for this -- I'm kind of a nerd about stuff like this, too. I don't understand science but I love it.
I don't even remember what year the last solar eclipse was. I know it was probably '15, '16, '17, something like that. I don't think I'll ever forget the '24 eclipse happened on Monday at the Masters, my first Masters, so the two memories will be connected.
Q. That's not a sign from the gods, is it, that you finally make it and there's an eclipse?
PETER MALNATI: Who knows.
Q. How does the game fit the course, and how does the course fit the game?
PETER MALNATI: Honestly, if I can just get over the fact that -- if I can get all my awe out of the way early in the week, my game fits the course superbly. If anything has been a weakness lately -- lately there haven't been many. I've played well the last handful of weeks since we got to Florida, but historically a weakness for me would be driving accuracy. The corridors here aren't terribly narrow.
But I've added a lot of distance. I hit it a lot farther than I did two, three, four years ago, a lot farther than I did 10 years ago. Touch on the greens, around the greens has always been a strength, and that's something you need here. I think the course suits the game absolutely, like, perfectly. I really am -- it's my first Masters. Rookies historically don't do awesome here. I go into it with -- I go into it expecting to do my best and expecting that to give me a chance.
But I certainly don't think there's anything about the course that is going to give me issues if I'm playing well.
Q. Hatcher is caddying for you at the par-3, right?
PETER MALNATI: Yeah, Hatcher will be -- he'll be a part of it on Wednesday. My wife will be there. I think she's listed as my full caddie for Wednesday, but Hatcher I think will be with us the whole time.
Q. He's been training?
PETER MALNATI: Yeah, he has.
Q. There is an awfully strong batch of rookies here. Have you found that?
PETER MALNATI: I'm not good at that kind of stuff. I just don't know. I've got enough going on. I try to pay attention to the game, but I don't know. I don't know.
Q. You might know this stat, but you talk about the strength of your game being around the greens, scrambling. I think 11 of the last 12 champions here have been top 7 and really 10 of the last 12 top 4 in scrambling for the week. What's the specific challenge that asks of you around the greens?
PETER MALNATI: Well, you have to have some creativity and some vision to be able to see. A lot of times you're not playing shots directly to the hole, you're playing shots off of slopes. So I think that's something that having grown up at a little municipal course with no driving range, I was always hitting chip shots, I was always playing off little slopes. I think I just have some imagination for that.
Then also you've got to make incredibly crisp contact. The turf here is absolutely perfect, but it's fairly tight. There's not a lot of grain because it's just super healthy overseed, but you just have to be really precise with your contact which is something that I don't think -- if you mis-hit a pitch and you don't get the spin on it that you want, you're going to look silly around the greens. So being able to replicate that really precise contact time after time is really important to chipping it close.
Q. How do you practice in the weeks coming in here the severe kind of ball above your feet, ball below your feet shots? Do you get on the side of the driving range?
PETER MALNATI: No, I'm really lucky, I have an amazing practice facility when I'm home. Most places that we go, you can get some of that, but that's such a feel thing anyway. I'm not sitting there -- I don't know. I don't think a ton about that. I just react to those lies. I guess that's because I've done it enough times where I have the reps. But yeah, that's not something I -- I don't specifically spend extra time preparing for the slopey stuff. That just kind of comes naturally.
Q. Did anyone give you a best piece of advice to take in your first Masters and what to expect?
PETER MALNATI: I've talked to a lot of people for sure. I've gotten great tips from a lot of people. I think it's my caddie's first Masters, too, which is amazing. I'm so excited for him. He's been caddying longer than I've been playing on TOUR, and for him -- this was his first win at Valspar, this is first Masters, so he's been talking to people, I've been talking to people, and you kind of put it all together, but at the end of the day, knowledge is going to be important. Experience obviously could be important. It's all going to come down to execution.
I highly doubt I'm going to finish this week and say, man, I did everything the way I wanted to, I just didn't have the right plan. I think it's either going to be I executed great and I'm thrilled or I didn't execute the way I wanted to and I'm bummed. I don't think it's going to come down to knowledge or experience, although those are, of course, important things around a course like this.
Q. What would be cooler for your son, knowing that his dad is playing at the Masters or he got to play while an eclipse was going on?
PETER MALNATI: Oh, eclipse for sure. He's going to be wearing his eclipse glasses for days just looking up at the sun now. He's like, I can see the whole thing. But still, I've got my glasses. He's going to love it.
Q. Is he down at Amen Corner right now?
PETER MALNATI: Yeah, he's four and a half. He spent almost the entire day out here today. He walked the front nine while I played. I'm pretty impressed with him. I don't know where he is right now, but he still won't be the least bit tired and he'll resist bedtime, but he's going to be worn out.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports