Danny Walker surges in third round

• Danny Walker shot a 6-under 66 to enter the top 10 at The Players Championship
• The Jacksonville resident only entered the field after Jason Day’s withdrawal

On Thursday morning, Danny Walker didn’t even expect to tee off at The Players Championship.

On Friday afternoon, he wondered whether he would make the cut.

After a Saturday to remember, Walker is on the run toward the biggest paycheck of his life.

From long shot to the leaderboard, the Jacksonville resident surged Saturday with a bogey-free, 6-under 66, entering the clubhouse at 7 under through the third round of the Players Championship.

For a man with $171,028 of career PGA Tour earnings, and two career made cuts, Walker emerged from the opening group and carried his scorecard into the Perch only four strokes off co-leaders Akshay Bhatia and Min Woo Lee.

“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.

Walker only received his chance just before the start of Thursday’s round when Jason Day withdrew due to illness. At a course that he said he’s played close to 100 times since moving from Bradenton to Jacksonville, he was ready, even with that south wind howling by morning’s end.

“I’ve had some crazier days out here for sure, but I’ve never played 17 that downwind,” he said. “That’s a little scary, worrying whether it’s even going to hold on that first bounce.”

No such worries Saturday at the Island Green, where he nearly drained an 18-foot putt for birdie and ended with a comfortable par.

Making the cut on the number with a 1-under 143 after two rounds, he opened Saturday’s action with birdies on the par-5 second (reaching the green in two and two-putting from 70 feet) and the par-3 third (sinking a 44-footer for birdie).

He added birdies at Nos. 6, 9 and 11, then hit another birdie at 16 to climb into a tie for ninth place for the tournament entering the clubhouse.

“I played really well the last 10 holes or so yesterday to finish the round,” he said. “I was able to just keep that ball-striking momentum going into today.”

The Danny Walker file

How out of nowhere is Walker’s rise? As of Thursday’s opening round, he didn’t even have his own Wikipedia page.

The 6-foot, 175-pound Walker, a 29-year-old who came to Jacksonville by way of Lakewood Ranch in Bradenton and the University of Virginia, has yet to win or even finish top-10 on the PGA Tour.

His PGA Tour exempt status rests on his top-30 performance (28th) on the Korn Ferry Tour points list for 2024. He’s 125th in the FedEx Cup list and 284th in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Walker made his debut in the Bermuda Championship in 2020 but missed the cut. His only career made cuts on the Tour came in the Farmers Insurance Open in January, when he tied for 42nd, and the Mexico Open in February, when he went 68-71-67-65 to tie for 13th in a career-best finish.

It’s far from the usual resume for the PGA Tour’s flagship event. Now he is a man in uncharted territory, paired with major champions (Jordan Spieth and Wyndham Clark on Thursday and Friday, Shane Lowry on Saturday) and outshooting them all.

For Walker, the moment still has yet to fully sink in.

“A little bit, but not really. It probably will more over the next few days,” Walker said. “Feels pretty good.”

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