Danny Walker looks at a putt on the fourth hole during the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines’ South Course on Wednesday in La Jolla, California.
Getty Images
Rookie Danny Walker added two new clubs this week, making his fourth career start on the PGA Tour. So far it has paid off.
Walker started Farmers’ insurance open with seven people under 65 on Wednesday in La Jolla, California, throwing it into the draw for a while and two strokes behind the first-round leader Ludvig Aberg.
Walker, 29, also played Torrey Pines’ South Course on Wednesday – often the more difficult of the two – and is the only player in the top seven who didn’t start on the North Course.
Lee Trevino taught me 10 lessons in 38 minutes. Here they are
Dylan Dethier
“It was just fairways and greens,” Walker said. “One of those days when the driver was working, we never really forced the problem out. I actually tried to hit the center of the green many times and then made a few putts and got a good score that way. I think I hit every green, which is rare, especially on such a challenging course. This really made me have a bad day. And then he made a few putts.
Walker he did in fact, he hit every regulation green and became just the 12th player to do so on the South Course since 1980 (and the first since Martin Laird in 2019). However, last-minute changes to his driver and pitcher were also notable.
He had a meeting with Titleist on Sunday and put a new one in his bag for the week, and on Tuesday he also replaced another putter, a new Scotty Cameron blade.
“It just has a dot on the top,” Walker said. “It really helped me just free up my shot and not try to get that perfect setup where I could just focus more on my line and the hole and not like the ball and my putter, so that helped me free up a lot.”
Walker didn’t win on the Korn Ferry Tour last season, but finished 28th on the points list, which was good enough to earn him PGA Tour membership for 2025 (top 30 finishes). He started the season with unsuccessful performances in the Sony Open and American Express tournaments, although the week started more promising.
“Every time you change to a new route and advance, there is always some adjustment involved,” he said. “It’s easy to think you have to work harder, do more, and be more perfect. For the first two weeks I was definitely stressed out too much. This was the first day I could really relax, play golf and enjoy the day and just watch the targets and hit them without worrying too much. A lot of it was just, yeah, I was in the right space, so it took two weeks.
