[PHOTO: Julio Aguilar]
A cynic might say that golf could always use a little more colour, and, accordingly, Peter Malnati, the winner of the Valspar Championship today, prevailed using a yellow golf ball for the right reason.
“Well, I started using it in Minnesota at the 3M Championship last [July],” he said. “And the reason I switched to it is because my, at the time, 3-year-old, who is now 4, liked them. And so, he’s kind of over it now, but it still makes me think of him, and that’s worth a smile or two, which is worth a lot out there for me.”
The clubs Peter Malnati used to win the 2024 Valspar Championship
Malnati, 36, closed with a four-under 67 to win by two strokes over Cameron Young at Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead course in Palm Harbor, Florida. The victory was the second of his PGA Tour career, the first coming at the Sanderson Farms Championship in 2015.
Incidentally, he isn’t the first to win on the PGA Tour using a coloured golf ball. Jerry Pate began using orange golf balls in 1980 and won three times with one, including the Players Championship (then called the Tournament Players Championship) in ’82. Wayne Levi, meanwhile, also won with a yellow ball.
