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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Danny Walker’s magical week took yet another memorable turn Saturday at the Players Championship.
The 29-year-old Jacksonville, Fla., resident was the first alternate into the field at TPC Sawgrass and got the call early Thursday morning that he had a spot after Jason Day withdrew with an illness.
A decent opening round turned into a sketchy second round. The third round was much better.
Walker shot a 6-under-par 66 on Saturday, paired with former British Open champion Shane Lowry.
Walker went from last place among those who made the cut, with the first tee time of the day to now being tied for eighth in the tournament at 7-under par, trailing leader JJ Spaun by five strokes.
He’ll enter the final round just four shots off the lead.
“It’s always a little stressful when you’re right on the cut line, and once you make the weekend it’s easy to free it up because you don’t have anything to lose,’’ Walker said after his round. “I can’t go backwards. You can only move forwards at that point.’’
It’s been a roller coaster of emotion for Walker, who said he was actually in a toilet stall when the call came in from the PGA Tour official.
He went out to his car in the players parking lot after he got the call telling him he was in the field and quietly shed a tear.
Walker shot a 1-over-par 73 in the opening round and then things got interesting in the second round Friday.
He was cruising along at 4-under par in his second round, standing at 3-under for the tournament and seemingly safely inside the cut line.
Walker then bogeyed Nos. 17 and 18 to close at 1-under par for the tournament.
His rimmed out a short par putt on 18 for the bogey. With the cut line then at 2-under par, it looked like a nightmarish finish.
Thankfully, the cut later moved to 1-under and Walker was in for the weekend.
This entire week is a big step forward for Walker, who’s playing in only his sixth PGA Tour event.
He’s 284th in the world rankings and has $684,667 in career earnings — a number he can eclipse Sunday with a high finish.
Pretty good for a player who briefly gave up on his PGA Tour dream in 2022 when he took a job as a server at a bar-restaurant called Bahama Breeze.
“I’ve wanted to play this event my whole life, especially like the last several years living in Jacksonville,’’ Walker said. “This feels like my hometown event in a lot of ways. Especially watching it last year, watching some of my friends play, I just wanted to get in this year so much.
“Then actually getting in, it’s just an accomplishment of a goal. A big goal.’’
Walker moved to Jacksonville during his first year on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2019 after finishing college at the University of Virginia.
“I just wanted to find the best place for me to practice and get better, and this seemed like the place to go, especially with everything being free out here,’’ he said, referring to PGA Tour and Korn Ferry players having access to the TPC facilities.
Walker estimated that he’d played the TPC Sawgrass Stadium course some 100 times before he got into the field Thursday.
He called being paired with Lowry, a major champion, “a little surreal.’’
On Sunday, it’ll get more surreal because he’ll be paired with Rory McIlroy in the final round and he’ll do so while in contention to win.
“I had never met any of those guys, so it was nice just to meet them and get that out of the way,’’ he said of the many stars in this field. “It was like, ‘OK, now we can go play golf.’ The first hole or so, I was pretty nervous and then was able to find some rhythm after that.’’
