In eight full seasons on the PGA Tour, Jimmy Walker has accumulated nearly $8.2 million in earnings.
Not bad for a player who never cracked the top 50 in the World Golf Rankings until he won last week’s Fry.com Open at CordeValle, his first Tour victory in his 188th start.
“I don’t think my window is closing,” the 34-year-old Walker said after winning the Frys.com Open by two strokes over Vijay Singh last Sunday. “I think it just opened up a little bit. I want to stay hungry.”
Indeed, no one would blame or notice if Walker rested on his laurels, having secured enough money to last a lifetime. However, Walker hinted his best golf might be yet to come.
“I don’t think I’m old,” he said. “I don’t feel old. I hit the ball farther than all these young guys.”
By winning the Frys.com Open, Walker received a host of perks, including a three-year Tour exemption and an invitation to play in the Masters and the Tournament of Champions in Maui. The $900,000 winner’s check isn’t too shabby, either.
“I’ve watched the Masters since I was a little kid,” Walker said. “It’s another dream come true.”
When Walker tees it up at Augusta in April, it actually won’t be the first time he’s played the course. Masters club member Paul Sarvadi — a family friend — invited Walker and his father out to Augusta about five years ago.
For two glorious days, Walker was in golf nirvana, not only playing the course but also staying in the Augusta cabins.
That Walker was able to share the moment with his father, Jim — who is a scratch golfer and once shot a 60 — made the experience all the more memorable.
Walker’s experience only further whetted his appetite to play at the Masters for real.
“I felt like I was good enough to be in them, play in them,” Walker said. “There’s always this big pressure to get into Augusta, and I would press here, press there. You want to be playing in the big stuff. That’s what I’m aspiring to do — play against the world’s best.”
Walker is playing the best golf of his career right now, nine years in. He made 25 straight cuts spanning the 2012-13 season, but Sunday he reached the apex of his career.
Known for being steely under pressure, Walker was steady in the final round, shooting a 5-under 66 to win rather comfortably. Walker sees even better days ahead.
By sticking with the golfer’s mantra of learning everyday, Walker has persevered in times when some golfers might have failed. In the last tournament of the 2009 season, Walker’s career was on the line.
Needing to make a 4½ foot putt for par to keep his Tour card, Walker drained it, taking the last exempt position on Tour. Had he not made the putt, Walker would’ve had to go back to the rigorous process of qualifying school just to get into tournaments.
“This game is tough enough that you can’t think what could’ve been,” Walker said. “Everything you do, hopefully you can learn and build on it. I try not to have any expectations (coming into a golf tournament), or else you get ahead and it gets you out of your frame of mind.”
Walker learned the game from Jim, who still has plenty of game.
“Pros will come to our home course, and he’ll kick them back to the car,” Walker said. “It took me until I was 15 until I beat him.”
In his spare time, Walker is a budding amateur astro-photographer. He makes images of objects in deep space, and, by all accounts, knows how to produce a great shot.
In golf, too.
