Player championship: Danny Walker arrived without a place in the field. Then set up a potentially life -changing payday.

Cnn
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On Thursday it was around 7 a.m. when Danny Walker felt in a toilet of the TPC Sawgrass -Kleid -Keidkabinen in the toilet how his phone started.

The call itself took a little more than a few minutes, but its effects on the PGA tour rookie were already something different than life-changing and could get even better.

In the last minute at the last minute by the former Jason Day No. 1, Walker was driven down to the Players Championship, where the Florida native has since exceeded a variety of the game’s greatest stars.

The 29-year-old was the first alternative for the 51st edition of the PGA Tour flagship event and had taken the short trip from his house in Jacksonville to Ponte Vedra Beach and knew that he would only be on the field if a player pulled out.

After the campaign had seen the campaign behind the ropes last year, the dreams of children of a tournament debut seemed to be delayed by at least another 12 months when the call he had never expected, Walker that the PGA championship winner from 2015 had withdrawn due to illnesses.

The news was the kind of surprise that required some moments of loneliness.

“It meant the world,” Walker told reporters on Thursday. “Wanted to play at this event since I was a little child, especially to live here … I couldn’t have been more excited.

“I went and sat in my car for a few minutes and just let me meet a little, maybe they leave a tear … I tried to let the emotions out early so that I can relax and play.”

The bombs did not stop here.

At his TSHIRT time from 8:46 a.m., he was in the world No. 284 Walker: Jordan Spieth and Wyndham Clark.

Companies were viewed for a golfer who only earned his first PGA tour map with a 28th place on the Korn Ferry Tour last year, a development trip for the top racing route.

Nevertheless, Walker showed no indication of intimidation in his 19th career round of the PGA Tour Golf and Birte on the way to card for the opening of an opening-and-over 73 streak of the stadium square.

Nevertheless, the alumni of the University of Virginia was working to do it until the weekend. This goal seemed to be at a moving distance when six birdies arrived for the second round to the 17th tea on Friday, only for two closing bogies to achieve an anxious waiting time to see whether an under-saving cross-country harness would be sufficient to push through.

The cutting line settled exactly at one-uner, and Walker was again reversed with the players on the skin of his teeth.

With a variety of large stars -from the big winners Matt Fitzpatrick and Brian Harman to the established PGA Tour winners Viktor Hovland and Max Homa -Walker was expecting the earliest tea -time of the third round, where the Open Champion 2019, Shane Lowry, was expected as his play partner.

“It was a little surreal,” said Walker to reporters on Saturday. “I had never hit one of these boys before, so it was nice to meet them and to clear it out of the way. Like: “Okay, now we can play golf.”

The first hole or so I was pretty nervous and was then able to find a rhythm. ”

Rhythm was an understatement. While Lowry worked for a frustrating two over 74, Walker sailed with a windy TPC Sawgrass with a bogey-free six-below 66 to return to the top 10 shots behind the second round leader, Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia, before the duo was on the way on Saturday.

“It was just a really good ball that I hit solid,” said Walker, adding that he had played the course almost 100 times since moving to Jacksonville in 2019.

“I met my starting lines, that was the key.”

The stay in the top 10 would lead to an unprecedented payday for Walker, who took on a job as a waiter in the Bahama Breeze restaurant chain in early 2022 before deciding to return to Golf, according to his PGA tour biography.

A 10th place (without ties) at this year’s Player Championship would only be rewarded with a price balance of 681,250 US dollars -only shy of 684,667 US dollars that Walker has accumulated at 97 events since his professional 2018.

Almost $ 180,000 of these total profits come from a five PGA tour in 2025, mainly from a bound 13th place in the Mexico Open in February, which paid out around $ 137,000.

On Saturday evening, however, Walker had more important plans than imagining how he will spend potential profits.

“Probably make a nap or try it,” he said. “I didn’t sleep much last night, so you see if I can do it well again.”