Player Championship: Danny Walker runs from alternative to candidate after tears and late call to TPC Sawgrass | Golf news
Danny Walker didn’t even have to be involved in the players, but the American fills a childhood dream, charging at the leading event of the PGA Tour.
The Rookie PGA Tour was not part of the original field for this week’s event on TPC Sawgrass, only for World No 284 to make a last minute call on Thursday morning when Jason Day withdrew due to illness.
Walker learned of his late entry with a phone call – while he was in the toilet of the locker room – less than two hours before his time, with a graduated Korn Ferry Tour, given the spotlight, along with the main champions Jordan Spieth and Wyndham Clark.
“That meant the world to me,” Walker said. “I wanted to play in this event since I was a kid, especially to live here locally. I have watched it a bunch of times in the last few years, so I couldn’t be more excited.
“I went and sat in my car a few minutes after that and somehow let me hit me a little, maybe I let go of tears. It was all great. I was just excited. It was just a little shock, because I didn’t really expect to get in.”
Walker fought until the weekend on cutting after round 73 and 70, handed him a teenager’s time on Saturday morning, along with the main winner Shane Lowry, where he used the best of the conditions for posting third round 66.
“Once you make a weekend, it’s easy to free it because you have nothing to lose,” Walker said. “I can’t go back, you can just move forward at that moment. I just managed to keep that swing of the ball.”
Walker ended up only in the top 40 this season in his five starts at PGA Tour, after earning a promotion last year with his top-30 ending on the Korn Ferry Tour Points list, with the 29-year-old not even having his side of Wikipedia-his third round-his limited profile.
“I wanted to be here, playing in these events,” Walker said Sky Sports. “It’s hard to put it in perspective, it’s a long time to work and get a game where I want it to be at this level.
“All the possibilities we can get at the beginning of the year to play in bigger events can really set up the whole season. On top of that, the experience of playing with the main champions is invaluable.”
Walker has lived in the Jacksonville area since 2019 and has played TPC Sawgrass ‘close to 100 times’, which is why players feel “like his hometown” in a place with which he has struggled in all possible elements over the years.
His only previous victories as a professional arrived through PGA Tour Canada and last 2022. Just staying in the first 10 this week would double his $ 684,667 career earnings, with the possibility of a debut victory still is out of the question.
Walker said Sky Sports To “jump up and down” for his 10-year Self “because of the possibility of opposing players. These childhood dreams are now becoming a reality.
Who will win the players? Check out the last live on Sunday from 1pm on Sky Sports Golf, with 10 additional feeds – including prominent holes, prominent groups and bonus coverage – on Sky Sports+. Get Sky Sports or Stream without a contract now.
