Peter Malnati

Malnati got off to a solid start to the 2020-21 season with a runner-up at the Sanderson Farms and a T5 at the Shriners Open. He really struggled when the calendar flipped to 2021, however, missing the cut in 16-of-23 starts. Malnati is just too inconsistent of a ball-striker to trust in salary cap formats for the 2021-22 campaign.

Malnati is a short hitter and very good putter, which means he always has a puncher's chance on shorter tracks. He had four top-25s last season but no top-10s, and missed more than half his cuts. Malnati has eclipsed $1 million just once in six seasons on the PGA Tour and doesn't seem to have much upside.

Malnati struggled out of the gate as a rookie in 2012, earnings just over $270k, but he rebounded nicely in his next attempt in 2016, picking up a win and over $1.2 million in earnings. Since then however, it's been a real struggles as he's pocketed an average of just over $500k per season over the past three seasons. He did improve some last season from the previous two years, but not enough to justify a salary cap selection this season.

Malnati broke through for his only PGA Tour victory in the fall of 2015, but in the two seasons that followed he has failed to post a top-10 finish. Malnati has proven himself a top-20 putter in each of the last three seasons but struggles mighily with his ballstriking compared to other pros. All said, his upside is capped by his weak tee to green game and he simply hasn't shown improvement in this aspect in the last three seasons, so avoid him in all formats.

Malnati finished 167th in points, but is exempt via his win in the 2015 Sanderson Farms Championship. Malnati did little the rest of 2015-16 or in 2016-17. Last season, he played 29 tournaments and made 17 cuts, one of which was a top-25 – and even that was at the opposite-field Barbasol (T18).

Malnati was determined to stay on the PGA Tour for a second year as he did everything he could to retain his card by playing a whopping 32 events. Like many rookies, he struggled to make more cuts than he missed and unfortunately he ended up missing almost twice as many cuts as he made. Luckily for Malnati, when he made the cut, he played pretty well on the weekend. That's both good and bad, as he proved he could play on the weekend, but he lacked the consistency to get there often. This would indicate that his upside is going to be high once he figures it out, but for now, he carries a bit of risk. As such, he's worth a look in salary cap leagues because of that potential upside. In drafts, he should go off the board in the eighth or ninth round.