Peter Malnati spent much of the day on 59 watch before settling for a 9-under-par 61 and a two-stroke lead at the Rocket Classic on Thursday at Detroit Golf Club.
Malnati went out in 7-under 28 and added birdies at the par-3 11th and par-4 13th hole, positioning himself to go 10 under or better at the par-70 course. Instead, he closed with five pars, with a missed 5 1/2-foot birdie chance at No. 16 along the way.
Rickie Fowler and Ryan Gerard are two shots back after opening with 7-under 63s. Patrick Cantlay and Patrick Fishburn are tied for fourth at 6-under 64.
Malnati’s career-low 61 tied the Rocket Classic scoring record after Jake Knapp shot a second-round 61 last year. He’s also the first player to shoot 61 in the first round of a tournament this year, per the PGA Tour.
“It’s cool when you’re there (in the zone), you don’t have to think tons, which is really nice,” Malnati said. “… For me today, what I was doing today was trying to figure out or trying to just think about the things that helped me get there, which were a lot of presence.”
Malnati, 39, is seeking his third PGA Tour win and angling to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs at the 11th hour. He entered the week 171st in the points race after making just seven cuts in 17 starts this year; he’d jump to a projected 68th place with a win, and the top 70 players as of Aug. 9 will make the playoffs.
“You know, I’m really consistent in my process and I work really hard,” Malnati said. “I always think I’m close to playing well, but you do start to have those questions and doubts when I’ve thought I was close all year and I haven’t had any kinds of breakthroughs. You know, those doubts and fears and anxiety, they start to creep in.
“But I’ve stayed consistent to my process and I’m really proud of like the work that I put in, the way I prepare, so I know I’m capable of this. It’s nice to see it for one round. I’d like to be able to keep it going for whole tournament and then string some of them together.”
Fowler’s win at this event in 2023 was his most recent win of any kind, while Gerard is once again in the hunt after tying for ninth at the Open Championship two weeks ago.
Fowler started on the back nine and had a 5-under stretch across four holes — birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie at Nos. 13-16. He bogeyed No. 17 but added another string of birdies at Nos. 4-6.
“It’s definitely been a bummer to kind of come into this knowing it was the last one,” Fowler said of this being the final edition of the tournament. “It’s been fun for me to have a partnership with Rocket and see this event make its way here because that was always a dream of theirs to have an event back in Detroit, and to see it continue to grow over the years, felt like it just kept getting bigger and better.”
Gerard, who said he made several changes to his set of clubs, made six of his seven birdies on the inward nine for a 6-under 29.
“A lot of these things were, you know, kind of planned and knew we had to do it somewhere,” Gerard said. “Felt really good about the way we put things together. Just kind of stayed patient early on when things weren’t going the way I wanted them to. Kind of got a little frustrated. Had a nice talking with my caddie on 9 green about kind of locking in and trying to be a little more positive and trying to go and hit some better golf shots.
“Just happy to go do that on the back.”
Michael Kim, who opened the 3M Open last week with a 59, shot an opening 65 Thursday and is tied for sixth with Keegan Bradley, Chris Kirk, Doug Ghim, Hayden Springer, Michael Brennan and Germany’s Stephan Jaeger.
Brennan was 2 over through four holes before sinking an incredible eight birdies in a row from Nos. 5-12, including a 22-footer at the par-3 fifth and a 17-footer at the par-3 11th. It was the longest birdie streak by anyone on tour this season.
Defending champion Aldrich Potgieter of South Africa struggled to a 6-over 76.
–Field Level Media
