Malnati: "When people say, oh, this golf course is all about angles, that's not true."

After a Sony Open first round 62, was asked about a recurring Waialae Country Club theme: is this one of the last courses where a more strategic, accurate player can win?

The full exchange, though the last question answered is the best part addressing the idea that there are any preferred “angles” of attack left in modern golf:

Q. Talking to a few guys about this week, as the game goes to distance, are there places you can't win?

PETER MALNATI: Where I can't win? I hit it far now. I'm longer than average I think.

Q. Are you longer than Cam Champ?

PETER MALNATI: No. But he's pretty long. There's not places I can't win. There's probably conditions in which I can't win. But like golf courses, I've never been to Augusta. Augusta probably ain't going to suit me great but I putt it really well and I hear you have to do that there.

Q. You do. You have to do it everywhere. What conditions are you talking about, do you think?

PETER MALNATI: When it's super wet and we're doing everything through the air -- one of my favorite things to criticize, a weird way to say something, I absolutely hate it when I'm watching golf on TV, which is rare, and I hear the commentators say, oh, this course is all about angles.

Golf, on TV -- that's rarely ever true. Have you ever watched golf on TV? Like, look at the way Jason Day hits it. Angles don't mean anything when you fly it to the hole. Like just fly it to the hole and land it next to the hole. Angles aren't important. So when people say, oh, this golf course is all about angles, that's not true. Like that doesn't matter.

And so there's places that are the big, wide open course when is they get really soft like it's going to be tough to hit three clubs longer into a green and compete. But when the ball is bouncing and going crazy places, like here, I hit several drives ShotLink will say they went 320 plus. Like when the ball is bouncing like that, I can play anywhere.

Also note that Malnatti makes clear he doesn’t watch much golf on TV. Why do pro golfers always like to let us know that?

The bigger point here though: angles as we knew them hardly matter in the launch angle era. Unless a new angle can be created with a 12 degree launch angle and 320 yards of carry. Just ask Waialae’s 18th hole.