Travelers Championship
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Peter Malnati
Quick Quotes
Q. 39 on that second nine, that was pretty sporty. You're smiling. That was pretty good?
PETER MALNATI: Yeah, absolutely. This is one of my favorite courses on TOUR. I love it. I always tell the tournament director this is my major because I haven't played a ton of majors yet. And I've never played particularly -- it was crazy. I hit a lot of shots today -- well, not a lot --but I hit a few shots today where I was trying to lay up to a certain yardage and get up there, and I hit it 20 yards farther than I meant to. That's not normal. I'm normally the other way. I usually hit 20 yards shorter than I mean to. So, yeah, the course is firm. It's perfect for me and the way I like to play.
It doesn't surprise me to see that Zach Johnson's name is pretty high too. I bet he likes it. It's super fun to play this golf course.
Q. Knoxville guy here in Hartford, that's pretty good, huh? Talk about your round today, how it went pretty well for you, including getting 6 on the back nine there?
PETER MALNATI: Yeah, it's pretty cool. I really didn't feel awesome on the front nine, but I just kind of hung in there. I was even par with a ball in the bunker on No. 11 walking down the hill. So to walk off the 18th green at 6-under feels pretty great. But I really played pretty solid all day, and then just kind of hit -- caught fire a little bit on the back nine. The back nine gives you some opportunities. So it's so much fun to play holes like 13 and 15 where you know if you hit some good shots you can have some putts for eagle and if you hit some bad shots, you're going to be in trouble. That's the mark of a good golf course, a fun golf course, so it was really fun to play well.
Q. Can you talk about the eagle on 15?
PETER MALNATI: Yeah, I mean, I hit a perfect shot, but the fact that it cozied up 3 feet from the hole, that's just, you know, I hit the shot the way I wanted to, but that's just good luck. That ball could have hit the down slope short of the green, and it would have gone all the way to the back. But it landed in a perfect spot right in the up slope just short of the green. It killed it and trickled out there. I don't know what ShotLink would say, but I was probably three feet or maybe three and a half.
It was just that was so much fun because that's, like a lot of us out here, it's not if not my favorite one, maybe one of my favorite holes on TOUR. So to hit that shot there, that was really cool.
Q. What did you use?
PETER MALNATI: My driver. It was the perfect one. I could hit it high, kind of fady little driver off the pond. It was into the wind a little bit, so it was just perfect.
Q. A good first round and especially ending that final round with a few good holes to cap it off. What's that do for the confidence and mentality heading into round 2?
PETER MALNATI: I felt good. I feel confident coming into the week. I've been doing all the right things. So to see some validation and post a good score on the back nine is really cool. But certainly it feels great, because I feel like I've been doing the right things for a good while now, and sometimes it doesn't result in a good score. So having it result in a good score is a lot more fun than not.
Q. Was there a point for you on the back nine where you thought I've got this turned around?
PETER MALNATI: I don't know. I was just trying to do my best. I didn't feel like I had anything to turn it around from. I feel like I've certainly haven't had the results I want for the last two-and-a-half years or whatever. But nothing that happened out there today means it's turned around. It's just I've been doing the right things and it's cool to see a good nine.
I do feel like I'm ready to keep it going though. It feels good. And you look like Billy Joel, by the way.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
Rev #1 by #170 at 2018-06-21 17:08:00 GMT
