PGA Tour Policy Committee member Peter Malnati played a great round of golf Saturday at The Players Championship, shooting a 6-under 66. This puts him at 7 under par and moves him up 30 places on the leaderboard.
But all the buzz surrounding Malnati probably doesn’t come from his play.
After the round, he spoke about ongoing negotiations between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour, which is funded by Saudi Arabia. There were many topics that Malnati detailed, but one thing that definitely came out was his distaste for the team golf aspect of LIV.
“I don’t know what LIV does, but it seems like a forced team model to me,” he said. “Do any fans care about which team won the tournament?” I don’t know what LIV fans want or care about, but they do care about who won the tournament. Do you have any fans?”
Additionally, he expressed a lack of knowledge about what the Saudi Public Investment Fund wants to achieve with team golf.
“I feel like we could create some kind of artificial team golf somewhere outside of the FedEx Cup season, but like, what would he do?” [Yasir Al-Rumayyan] “The question of want is something I would like to understand more about,” he said.
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“I don’t think it’s some kind of artificial, fake thing where you add up somebody’s random scores and call it a team. I don’t think it’s just that,” Malnati said. “I think what he meant was something like the Ryder Cup, but I don’t know because I haven’t talked to him.”
The 36-year-old admitted he is not opposed to the concept of team golf.
“Obviously, the greatest team event in golf right now is the Ryder Cup, which is incredible,” Malnati said. However, he has a hard time understanding how it fits into his PGA Tour.
“I can’t think of a way to fit team golf into the FedEx Cup schedule,” he said. “Personally, I don’t want that, but if I come across a great idea, I can change my mind. I don’t see a way to fit team golf into the FedEx Cup schedule. There will still be time to play” in the fall. There may be some options, but I don’t know. ”
The PGA Tour already has a busy event schedule. Add another element like team golf and it gets even crazier.
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While discussing the topic, Malnati also touched on Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TGL. It was a team golf simulation league that had been postponed due to infrastructure problems.
“Sounds exciting, but I didn’t know it was TGL. So here you go. There’s team golf, too. The Dome and whatever they’re doing, we’ll hit it.”
The former Missouri Tiger didn’t hold back Saturday afternoon. His candor is something most fans appreciate.
Savannah Lee Richardson is a golf staff writer for SBNation’s Playing Through.For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough On all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirls and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
