Long Shot Winner, Familiar Runner-up
Malnati prevails, Young comes close at Valspar Championship
In the aftermath of his seventh runner-up finish on the PGA Tour without a victory, Cameron Young said he felt that he handled his emotions well during a final round in Palm Harbor, Fla., that featured a leaderboard as crowded as a spring-break beach. Yet the process cannot override the outcome, as Young’s search for his first tiitle will continue after he came up two shots behind surprise winner Peter Malnati, who closed stronger than Young on Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead course.
Perhaps Young did make strides in pursuit of victory No. 1. It is hard to fathom that the native New Yorker who now lives across the Sunshine State from the site of his latest close call will go much longer without breaking through. It is also true that had Young not come so close to winning over the last few years—if his was a record of top-15s instead of the many near-misses—there would be little focus on his failure to lift a trophy. But that’s sports, particularly when the athlete in question possesses the skills that Young does.
Baby steps can indeed be progress, but at some point, they must be replaced by long strides.
“Just a bad time for a bad one,” Cameron Young said of his final tee shot at the Valspar Championship, a summation as on target as his drive was off line, a big pull into the woods that had him scrambling for a par (unsuccessfully, after a three-putt from long range following his recovery shot) instead of going for a birdie that turned out to be necessary given Malnati’s handiwork behind him.
There were six different leaders/co-leaders on a sunny Sunday near the Gulf of Mexico, but Malnati, despite it being more than eight years since his lone PGA Tour win, proved top shelf over the final nine. He played it in four-under 31, the decider being a birdie on the long par-3 17th, where Malnati hit his tee shot to six feet and sank the putt to take a one-stroke lead over Young, who was having his problems a hole ahead.
The Indiana native who went to college at Missouri and now lives in Tennessee didn’t look like someone unfamiliar with being in contention. He wasn’t playing like someone who had only a dozen top-10 finishes in 258 starts before teeing it up at Innisbrook. He didn’t resemble the golfer who had missed more cuts than he has made in a decade on the PGA Tour. But down the stretch on Sunday, there were no holes in his game. And that’s why he experienced the joy of winning in front of his wife, Alicia, and their sons Hatcher and Dash.
Malnati hasn’t been a player director on the PGA Tour policy board very long, but given the turmoil of the pro game, there has been plenty to worry about in addition to his own play. He was gracious and articulate in his comments after being handed the trophy.
“This win, first and foremost, it's for me, it's for my family, it's for my caddie, it's for my team of people who support me,” Malnati said. “But on a larger scale it’s also, for Tampa, it's for the [organizing] Copperheads, it's for Valspar, and it's for all the events on the PGA Tour who find themselves in this new ecosystem kind of wondering where they fit and if they matter. There are thousands of Peter Malnatis out there who are 10 years old right now, or teenagers right now, who dream of playing golf on the PGA Tour. And they want to have the moment that I just got to have. If we don't have communities that believe in what the PGA Tour does and sponsors who support what the PGA Tour does, we don't have those moments.”
It was a company man talking, but it is hard to argue with what he said.
Malnati has played in only three major championships, but that number will rise quickly now thanks to his latest success. A decade younger, Young already has played in 10 majors and threatened to win a couple of them, with four top-10s. One of his growing number of second places came at the 2022 Open Championship at St. Andrews.
Young need not despair about what he hasn’t yet achieved. He can take solace from the fact that a golfer like David Duval—13 PGA Tour wins highlighted by an Open Championship—had seven runner-ups before he won for the first time in his 93rd start. The Valspar Championship was Young’s 60th PGA Tour event. It is easy to see Young having a Duval-like career, or perhaps even something better, but for there to be multiple wins there has to a maiden one. And a closing bogey probably won’t be in that picture.