PONTE VEDRA, Fla. — Few had as emotional a day at The Gamers Championship as Danny Walker on Thursday.
He obtained an early morning cellphone name from the PGA Tour telling him he was within the discipline as the primary alternate when Jason Day withdrew with an sickness.
The 29-year-old Walker, who earned his PGA Tour card for the primary time by means of his Twenty eighth-place end on the Korn Ferry Tour final yr, has lived in close by Jacksonville for the previous five-plus years.
“It meant the world to me,” he stated after taking pictures a 1-over-par 73 whereas paired with former U.S. Open winners Jordan Spieth and Wyndham Clark. “I’d never met either of them before, so that was something, too. I wanted to play in this event since I was a little kid, especially living locally. I watched it a bunch of times the last few years, so I couldn’t have been more excited.”
Walker, who was already on the course when he obtained the decision in case somebody withdrew, stated he needed to take a stroll to the participant car parking zone to compose himself as a result of he was so excited.
“I went and sat in my car for a few minutes afterwards and just kind of let it hit me a little bit, maybe let a tear out,” he stated. “In that moment, I tried to just reflect on who I was when I was a kid, just always wanting to play in this event and finally actually playing in it. I tried to let the emotion out early so then I can relax and go play.”
It wasn’t way back that Walker contemplated whether or not he ought to proceed taking part in as a result of he was struggling a lot.
Late in 2021, he moonlighted as a server at an area restaurant, Bahama Breeze, to become profitable.
“All the cheers at the beginning were only for Wyndham or for Jordan, and then towards the end, I started hearing more for myself,” Walker stated. “It’s like a few people figured out who I was by the end.”
Spieth delivered a traditional Jordan Spieth Expertise in Thursday’s opening spherical.
Spieth, whose status on the golf course is something however regular, had with a roller-coaster spherical en path to a 2-under-par 70.
His first 9 holes, performed on the again 9 together with his begin on No. 10, featured simply two pars to go together with two eagles, two birdies, two bogeys and a double-bogey.
He settled down some on his ultimate 9 holes with one birdie and one bogey, although sarcastically he was two photographs higher on his rocky entrance 9.
Spieth stated he’d favor his rounds to be “boring” fairly than ones with “volatility” like his first 9 Thursday.
“I’ve had a number of tournaments where I’ve played boring towards the end, and I’ve had plenty where there’s volatility, too,” he stated. “If I made 16 pars and two birdies, I would be like, ‘Oh, what do I need to do to make more birdies?’ ”
Alejandro Tosti, competing in his first Gamers Championship, was the star of the times earlier than the match started.
Tosti, a protracted hitter from Argentina, had a hole-in-one on the well-known island-green par-3 seventeenth gap in Wednesday’s apply spherical and celebrated by launching himself into the lake that surrounds the opening.
“It was my first hole-in-one ever,” Tosti advised The Submit after his 2-under-par 70 opening spherical Thursday. “I wish it was on a tournament day, but to get a hole-in-one on that hole was amazing. I’m super excited to have it on camera so I can show my kids and my grandkids.”
Tosti stated his leap into the water was premeditated.
“Two hours before that happened, I had an interview while on a par-3, No. 8, … and they were asking about the 17th and I said, ‘If I make a hole-in-one on hole 17, I’m going to jump in the water,’ ” he stated. “When I made it, I was going to dive in but I didn’t know how deep it was, and then I stopped and my friend pushed me in. The water was a little bit chilly, to be honest.”
