Dustin Johnson did his best to keep Brooks Koepka honest, getting within four shots, but a costly bogey by DJ coupled with a Koepka birdie widened the gap.
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HOUSTON – Later this month, Peter Malnati will become a father. His wife Alicia is due on Oct. 26, and whether their first child is a boy or a girl remains a surprise until the delivery. For the last couple of months, they’ve been making preparations to turn their new house into, as Peter says, a home. So it’s understandable that he’s been a little distracted lately inside the ropes. His results reflect it. He ended last season with a pair of missed cuts, then started the 2019-20 season with a Saturday WD due to a bad back, a T45 finish at the Sanderson Farms Championship, and consecutive missed cuts in his last two starts. Entering this week, he hadn’t broken 70 in his last eight rounds. Already planning to take the next five weeks off, Malnati wondered if he should even be playing the Houston Open. “The last couple weeks I’ve let it be a distraction in that I haven’t really prepared the way I normally would because my head’s back home. I want to be home,â€� Malnati said. “This week I was like, ‘dude, this is your last tournament before you become a dad, like do something with it.’ “The best thing you can do for your wife and your kid is to go out and play good.â€� So he did. Related: Leaderboard | Hammer roots on Astros after 67 | Beem’s ‘simply incredible’ first round Malnati shot a 3-under 69 on Thursday, followed by a bogey-free 7-under 65 on Friday morning at the Golf Club of Houston. That leaves him at 10 under. When he walked off the course, he was the clubhouse leader, with first-round co-leaders Austin Cook and Talor Gooch just starting their day. Given the windy conditions that kicked in in mid-morning after a 2-hour rain delay, the field average soared to nearly 73 for those with an early tee time. That means Malnati’s 65 was nearly 8 strokes better than the field. His caddie Chad Antus, who has been on the bag for about 2-1/2 seasons, called it the best round he had seen Malnati play. The only other round worthy of a comparison was the 10-under 62 that Malnati shot at the 2018 Korn Ferry Tour Championship, a round that included an eagle and 10 birdies. “Given the conditions of the course and everything else going on,â€� Antus said, “this round today was No. 1.“ While the next few weeks certainly will be exciting, Malnati is now in position to make the next two days exciting, too, as he chases his second career PGA TOUR win. He won the Sanderson Farms four years ago. “I practiced with a lot more focus this week and it’s nice to see that that does result in some better golf for me,â€� he said. “Yes, my head is definitely a little bit elsewhere, but again, the best thing even after the kid comes, when I do decide me and my wife decide it’s time for me to go play again — the best thing I can do when I’m at a tournament is focus on the tournament. “That’s what they need me to do, so that’s what I’m trying to do this week. It’s beyond words to say I’m 98% excited, 2% terrified, all of that is definitely at play right now. My wife’s the best and she’s going to be the best mother, so we’re going to handle things all right back home.â€� Perhaps Friday is an indication that he’s handling things inside the ropes too. Last season, Malnati’s only top-10 finish in 26 starts last season was in a team event, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, when he and Billy Hurley III were T9. But he was steady enough to make the FedExCup Playoffs and keep his TOUR card, actually improving his status from the previous year when he missed the Playoffs. In some ways, though, it was a breakthrough season for Malnati. He cites two areas of improvement – improved iron play and increased distance off the tee. On Friday, he said he “drove the ball beautifullyâ€� and was excited to see where he ranked in the field in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, a statistic in which he’s never ranked better than 150th in the previous four seasons and generally gives up strokes to the field. “I’m not a huge guy into stats,â€� he said. “At the end of the day, there’s only one that matters and that’s score and I had a good one of those today, but I do like to look at my driving stats and they’ve been really, really a weakness for me for a year.â€� What a story it would be if Malnati could pull off a win in Houston this weekend. What better way to enter fatherhood than with a shiny new trophy to show his child. “Most kids, when they kick it around at their home course growing up, they’re dreaming about that putt to win the Masters or that putt to win the U.S. Open or that putt to win THE PLAYERS Championship or something like that,â€� Malnati said. “I always took that dream one step farther. My dream, I used to as a little kid, I would watch and you would see these guys hole out to win the big tournaments and their wife and their little kids would just come running out on the green. That to me, that’s where the dream really is. That was the dream stuff. “I already won a Korn Ferry Tour event with my wife caddying for me, I won a big amateur event with my mom caddying for me, so I’ve gotten to have some of those kind of family moments at the end of a tournament. But the idea of actually being a father and then one day hopefully having my kids get to see me do what I love to do, which is this, and hopefully do it well is something that I kind of get emotional even just thinking about that. “That’s going to be so awesome for me.â€�
The final round of the AT&T Byron Nelson gets underway on Sunday from Trinity Forest Golf Club. Here’s everything you need to know to follow the action. Round 4 tee times Round 4 leaderboard HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 3:30-6:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 1-2:45 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m. (Featured Groups). Saturday, 2:30 p.m.-8 p.m. (Featured Groups). Sunday, 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. (Featured Groups). International subscribers (via GOLF.tv): Thursday-Friday, 12:00 to 22:30 GMT. Saturday-Sunday, 14:30 to 22:00. RADIO: Thursday-Friday, 1-6:30 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2-7 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.COM). NOTABLE TEE TIMES (ALL TIMES ET) Rory Sabbatini, Tyler Duncan, Shawn Stefani: 1:48 p.m. ET Brooks Koepka, Sebastián Muñoz, Matt Jones: 2 p.m. ET Sung Kang, Matt Every, Scott Piercy: 2:12 p.m. ET MUST READS In cold weather, Kang produces hot round A chip-in eagle – and then reality – for Romo Origin story: Arm-lock putting CALL OF THE DAY
Unlike with the other 13 clubs in a golfer’s bag, truly new putter technology is something of a rarity. Sure, new shapes and different head designs hit the market, models come and go, and novel insert materials arise, but how often do you see a putter offering totally unique face technology? That’s just what SIK Golf — with its Descending Loft Technology (DLT) — offers in its family of putters. As you’d expect, Descending Loft Technology means the loft of the putter face “descends” from the top to the bottom of the face. More specifically, SIK putter faces feature four flat surfaces milled into the putter face with loft decreasing by one degree (4 degrees to 1) from surface to surface. The next logical question, of course, is “why? In a word: consistency. No golfer perfectly matches the putter’s shaft angle from address to impact consistently. This produces inconsistent launch angles off the putter face, which leads to poor distance control. DLT aims to remedy this by offering a more consistent launch regardless of shaft lean, and thus a ball that finishes closer to the hole. Speaking about DLT, a SIK representative said “Descending Loft Technology aims to correct for shaft lean variance from address to impact (whether by shaft manipulation or changing ball position). We have four flat surfaces on our putters that descend in loft from top to bottom. For example, if the ball slightly moves back in your stance (or you deloft the club) the ball will impact higher on the face. A traditional putter would launch the ball with a negative launch angle, DLT will launch it similarly to a clean center strike. The same is true in reverse. With DLT you are consistently delivering proper loft at impact.” Another notable offering from SIK: Any putter can be purchased with any neck. With five heads and six hosels, there’s no doubt an option for every golfer. Whether you want a Pro with a plumber’s neck, a DW with a swept neck, or a Flo with a double bend, you can have it. “We developed our C-Series heads to allow the consumer the maximum amount of customization in a standard setup,” said SIK director of communications Tyler Finley. “Normally if you like a head shape you are stuck with the hosel that it’s made with. We didn’t think that was a very good way of getting the best fit. So if you like a traditional blade look, you can choose a plumber’s neck, slant neck, swept neck, double bend or armlock hosel. The same is true across our entire line of putters.” More on the specifics of the SIK models below. Pro The most popular SIK design, the Pro is a classic anser-style putter. DW Similar to the Pro, the DW is double the width of that classic anser-style putter design, offering higher MOI and stability. Jo Slightly heavier than the Pro and Sho, from heel to toe, the Jo is slightly shorter than the Pro. Sho The half-moon-shaped Sho is Sik’s mid-mallet offering. Depending on the neck configuration, the Sho weighs between 350 and 370 grams. Flo A reworked version of SIK’s oversized Mo mallet, the Flo features high MOI and a low CG. It weighs just over 415 grams with a plumber’s neck, 390 grams with double bend, and 400 grams with a slant neck. Additionally, the Pro, DW, and Flo models are all available in armlock with a longer shaft (steel or LAGP graphite) and MX/SIK grip Incidentally, the SIK Pro C-Series Armlock is the model Bryson DeChambeau won the 2020 U.S. Open with and continues to put in play. The Pro and Jo models retail for $399, the DW and Sho for $429, and the Flo for $449. The Pro Armlock retails for $499, the DW Armlock for $529, and the Flo armlock for $549 (with a steel shaft; there’s an upcharge for the LAGP graphite shaft). To purchase or learn more click here.
