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PALM HARBOR, Fla. — With his trademark floppy bucket cap and a bright, highlighter-yellow golf ball, Peter Malnati has cultivated a look that makes him relatively easy to distinguish from the field during a PGA Tour event. Not so at this week’s Valspar Championship at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort.
That’s because instead of a standard baseball cap, tournament organizers have provided volunteers with floppy hats and the first 500 spectators through the gates to watch Thursday’s first round of the tournament will receive a Malnati-style hat. Among a field of 155 players, it may be as hard to pick out Malnati as Steve McQueen or Pierce Brosnan in the final heist of the classic movie “The Thomas Crown Affair.” [In that case, it's a bowler hat that is part of the disguise that confuses the surveillance team.]
“It's pretty cool and funny,” Malnati said. “In a way it’s almost making fun of the fact this guy nobody has ever heard of won this tournament last year but he’s actually really cool and he wears a bucket hat. That’s kind of how I interpret it.”
Malnati won the Valspar Championship last March by two strokes over Cameron Young thanks to a final-round 4-under 67. It marked Malnati's first win on Tour in nearly nine years. The bucket hat isn’t the only way the tournament is celebrating its defending champion. It’s become a tradition for the previous year's winner to get a parking spot painted for them in the player parking lot and Malnati’s celebrates his love of bicycles, the Kansas City Royals and more. It was revealed on Sunday and the Hot Wheels car was a big hit with Malnati’s two sons. Every champion also gets a mural painted in his hometown. Malnati’s, which includes an image of him holding son Hatcher over his head just as he did on the green after tapping in his winning putt, was painted on the side of a parking ramp in downtown Knoxville that faces a Farmer’s market that the family likes to attend.
“He was so tickled,” said Valspar tournament director Tracy West. “It’s our way to let the champion bring the win back to his community.”
To really lean into celebrating Malnati’s victory, West added another new twist. She proclaimed the first round Peter Malnati Appreciation Day. Once play finishes on Thursday, Malnati will be feted during a ceremony shortly after 6 p.m. ET, hosted by former Tampa Bay Buccaneers great Ronde Barber, who also serves as the tournament general chairman. Malnati knows about his day and is scheduled to attend his ceremony but the rest remains a surprise, so we won’t spoil it.
“We went all in,” West said. “To our knowledge, we’re the only PGA Tour event to honor our defending champ during tournament week.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: No Tour event has celebrated its champ like the Valspar Championship
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That’s because instead of a standard baseball cap, tournament organizers have provided volunteers with floppy hats and the first 500 spectators through the gates to watch Thursday’s first round of the tournament will receive a Malnati-style hat. Among a field of 155 players, it may be as hard to pick out Malnati as Steve McQueen or Pierce Brosnan in the final heist of the classic movie “The Thomas Crown Affair.” [In that case, it's a bowler hat that is part of the disguise that confuses the surveillance team.]
“It's pretty cool and funny,” Malnati said. “In a way it’s almost making fun of the fact this guy nobody has ever heard of won this tournament last year but he’s actually really cool and he wears a bucket hat. That’s kind of how I interpret it.”
Malnati won the Valspar Championship last March by two strokes over Cameron Young thanks to a final-round 4-under 67. It marked Malnati's first win on Tour in nearly nine years. The bucket hat isn’t the only way the tournament is celebrating its defending champion. It’s become a tradition for the previous year's winner to get a parking spot painted for them in the player parking lot and Malnati’s celebrates his love of bicycles, the Kansas City Royals and more. It was revealed on Sunday and the Hot Wheels car was a big hit with Malnati’s two sons. Every champion also gets a mural painted in his hometown. Malnati’s, which includes an image of him holding son Hatcher over his head just as he did on the green after tapping in his winning putt, was painted on the side of a parking ramp in downtown Knoxville that faces a Farmer’s market that the family likes to attend.
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“He was so tickled,” said Valspar tournament director Tracy West. “It’s our way to let the champion bring the win back to his community.”
To really lean into celebrating Malnati’s victory, West added another new twist. She proclaimed the first round Peter Malnati Appreciation Day. Once play finishes on Thursday, Malnati will be feted during a ceremony shortly after 6 p.m. ET, hosted by former Tampa Bay Buccaneers great Ronde Barber, who also serves as the tournament general chairman. Malnati knows about his day and is scheduled to attend his ceremony but the rest remains a surprise, so we won’t spoil it.
“We went all in,” West said. “To our knowledge, we’re the only PGA Tour event to honor our defending champ during tournament week.”
You must be registered for see images attach
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: No Tour event has celebrated its champ like the Valspar Championship
Continue reading...
