Jimmy Walker Goes Wire-To-Wire To Win First Major
- Dan Hauser
- 1 Aug, 2016
Jimmy Walker held off a Sunday charge from both Jason Day and Henrik Stenson to win the PGA Championship in wire-to-wire fashion.
Holding off the top player in the world, and a player of Stenson’s caliber, who two weeks ago won the Open Championship, would have been impressive enough in its own right. To do so when chasing down your first major and having to play 36-holes in one day, makes it an even greater feat. Walker has largely become an afterthought as of late. Sure, going into this week he had five wins on Tour, all in the past three years. However, with his shaky at best performances as of late, coupled with all the new talk of the Big 3 of Big 4, it almost seemed as if Walker had simply caught lightning in a bottle over that period.
“He lost faith in himself this year,” Walker’s swing coach Butch Harmon said. “Things weren’t working right and that’s how it goes sometimes. This is a hard league you’re in. I just had to do some work to get his head back in the game.”
Even Walker gave himself no chance to win this week. After rounds of 65 and 66, and thanks to Mother Nature, Walker found himself 36 holes away from winning the PGA Championship. It was only fitting, that shortly before going out for the 36-hole trek, Harmon gave him what might have been the best advice of the day. It wasn’t a swing tip or anything to work on mechanically, it was simply for Jimmy to just go be himself.
“Just go out and show them who Jimmy Walker really is,” Harmon told him.
That’s exactly what Walker did too. Playing with the calming demeanor of a Tuesday practice round instead of a Sunday at a major, Walker meticulously made his way around Baltusrol. He didn’t overpower the course, or do anything overly flashy necessarily, simply finding fairways and greens and making his putts. He made 9 straight pars on the front nine while maintaining his lead. Sure, it wasn’t exciting for the viewer at home or even the spectators at the course, but it was getting the job done. Then, as he made the turn, excitement came with it. He holed a bunker shot for birdies at the 10th to separate himself again and take a two shot lead over Day. Immediately, one hole ahead Day answered back with a birdie to get back to within one shot of the lead. You would have thought that with the #1 player in the world in Jason Day breathing down his neck, Walker would have folded under the pressure. He didn’t though, keeping his cool and answering with a birdie of his own at the 11th to extend the lead right back to two.
Walker then birdied the 17th to take a three shot lead, and it appeared that the 18th hole would simply be a glorified victory lap for the Texan. Day, however, was not going to go down without a fight. Standing in the fairway at 18 and thinking he was only down two, Day fired a 240 yard 2-iron to 15 feet. He drained the putt and looked back to Walker standing in the fairway, sending a message that if Walker wanted it, he was going to have to earn it.
Whether it was his intention the entire time, or Day’s eagle ahead influenced it, Walker opted not to lay up, instead hitting 3-wood for his second shot from 287 yards away. He hit it to possibly the worst possible place on 18, to the right on the green in the thick, thick rough. He managed to blast out of there and calmly two putt for the victory with Day looking on, as well as Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler, who had made their way to the 18th green to watch everything unfold in person.
Walker and Harmon will have plenty of time to celebrate, and when that time comes, they have something very nice to celebrate with. When the two first started working together in 2013, Harmon wouldn’t accept payment for Walker, so as a thank you Jimmy bought Butch a $1,200 Chateau Margaux. The bottle has never been opened. Harmon always said that he wouldn’t open it until Walker won a major. Well, time to uncork that bottle, you earned it Jimmy (and Butch).
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About Dan Hauser
As an avid golfer and sports enthusiast, Dan has had a passion for sports starting at a very young age. Dan’s other passion has always been writing. Since the time he could write, he has always enjoyed sharing information with people and telling stories through writing. In middle school he combined his two loves by joining the school newspaper in the sports department.
