Why does Peter Malnati love Sanderson Farms Championship so much? Start with a family and an Italian restaurant
10/04/2024 10:30 AM
JACKSON, Miss. — Just outside the backdoor of a house on Winged Foot Circle is a covered patio that overlooks a swimming pool.
That’s the place Peter Malnati thinks of when he calls Jackson his second hometown.
The house belongs to Durr and Robin Boyles and is located in The Country Club of Jackson community.
The house is where Malnati first stayed in 2015, when he won the Sanderson Farms Championship to earn his first PGA Tour victory.
The house is where he’s stayed during the tournament every year since.
“I feel like I was literally adopted by Jackson, Mississippi, before I won because a family that lives here on the golf course, they let me stay with them that first year,” said the 37-year-old Malnati, who lives in Knoxville, Tennessee. “They feel like family now. It’s really cool to see.”
Sanderson Farms: Leaderboard | Photo gallery
Malnati shot a 5-under-par 67 on the final day to top William McGirt and David Toms for the title that year. He earned himself a PGA Tour exemption through 2018 as a result.
‘I ate Amerigo like three or four times that week’
Malnati refers to Robin as his “Mississippi mama.”
She and Burr turned Malnati on to Amerigo Italian Restaurant, a tradition that lives on to this day.
“The year I won here, the first year I was here, I ate Amerigo like three or four times that week, so now we think that’s the secret,” Malnati said. “Even though it hasn’t worked since, it still tastes delicious
“We’ll have it multiple times during the week, which is really great.”
Of course Malnati, who started the week 16th in the FedEx Cup standings, brought his appetite for another victory with him to Jackson this year. His only other PGA Tour win came in March, when he topped the field at the Valspar Championship with a 12-under 272 at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Palm Harbor, Florida.
But even if he doesn’t win, he’ll enjoy time with his “family.”
“I’ve talked about this a lot with my own family, my wife, my two boys, my mom and dad,” Malnati said. “It’s the same here with my family that’s adopted me. There is a great comfort in knowing that they’re going to love me whether I shoot 64 and win the tournament again or whether I shoot 80 and miss the cut.”
‘I’m not even sure I took her to dinner’
Malnati grew up in Dandridge, Tennessee, a small town tucked into the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He’s a Kansas City Royals fan who played golf for the University of Missouri. He’s a husband to Alicia and a father to sons Hatcher and Dash.
He celebrated his 10-year wedding anniversary a year late this year in London after he played in the DP World Tour’s BMW Wentworth championship.
“We had a 10-month old,” he said of last year. “We did nothing. I’m not even sure I took her to dinner.”
Alicia flew to London this year and the two spent two days celebrating.
“As a PGA Tour player and a professional athlete who travels 30 weeks a year, when we get some time off, it’s seldom that we look at each other and say, ‘Let’s go somewhere,’ ” Malnati said. “We just wanted to be home. It was nice that we got that little excursion to London for a few days together.”
It’s nice to be back home with his adopted family in Jackson this week, too.
