US journeyman Malnati ends 3,059-day wait for second title at Valspar Championship

PGA Tour player-director Peter Malnati captured his second career PGA Tour title in an emotional finale to the Valspar Championship in Palm Harbour, Florida, on Sunday, more than eight years after his first win at the 2025 Sanderson Farms Championship.

It ended a dry run that had lasted for 3,059 days for the 36-year-old Malnati who was in the news recently for his participation in a meeting called by Tiger Woods at Albany in the Bahamas to interact with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who bankrolls the LIV Golf League.

Malnati, who also sealed an invitation to the Masters at Augusta National next month, beat out Cameron Young by two strokes with a closing 67 at the Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course in his 259th start, the PGA Tour said. Playing in front of his family, an emotional Malnati needed to survive some nerves and a tough finishing stretch at Innisbrook. “I was so nervous. I can’t describe it, it’s so cool,” he said later.

“You wonder if you’re ever going to do it again. It’s hard. In the eight/nine years since my last win, you look at the level of talent out here and the guys who are 20 years old coming out, they are just so good. To have this moment, it feels amazing. “You don’t know if you’re ever going to have another moment like this. Pretty amazing to have that dream come to life.”

Malnati set out on Sunday in the penultimate group, two shots behind leader Keith Mitchell. He would finish the regulation 72 holes on 12-under 272, two better than the up and coming Young, who played well for his 68 but was still left with a seventh runner-up finish, and yet to record a breakthrough win at 26 years of age. Down the order, China’s Carl Yuan finished tied fifth for his second top-10 of the season, chipping in twice enroute to a closing 3-under 68 at to finish on 8-under 276, four shots behind Malnati.

Korea’s K.H. Lee was a further stroke back in a share of ninth after a 69 for his second top-10 finish in three starts but two-time PGA Tour winner was kicking himself after making two bogeys over his closing three holes. “It was challenging and definitely played tough. I really hung in there, just trying to commit shot by shot. Don't really let one bad shot or one poor result took my mind off it, just keep trusting it, committing it. Fortunately enough, I had a couple chip-ins and that was very exciting,” said Yuan.

The rising star from China chipped in from 35 yards for eagle on the par-5 fifth hole and then holed another chip from 56 feet on the eighth for birdie to notch a second top-5 result after a tied fourth place at the Sony Open in Hawaii in January. The result ended an off-colour run of form which saw him miss four cuts in six starts in between the two high finishes. Yuan, who is seeking a maiden tour win, said his confidence was at its lowest following his lack of success despite starting the season strongly in Hawaii but thinks the answer to his woes is to simply to swing it freely. “You see pretty much everybody go on the range, work on stuff, you see coaches out here.

“It's constant for a player to strive to be a better golfer in general, so definitely on the technical side we all want to be more consistent, but it may not work for everybody. Probably, particularly for me, that when I try to be too technical, like it just really takes my mind down a bad route,” he said. “So, me just hitting shot after shot, making different golf swings, I mean, if I want to hit a 50-yard hook, I'm going to hit one here. There's no swing on the range a coach is really going to teach to you to hit a 50-yard hook, but that's how I like playing golf. I think that's where my talent is in this game. I got to make sure I don't take myself out of that.”