Trusting Walker finds way to first major triumph

Jimmy Walker said winning the PGA Championship on Sunday for his first career major was a matter of trust, both in himself and in his game.

The 37-year-old Texan showed he had what it takes by holding up over 36 holes over the sopping wet Baltusrol course on the final day for a one-shot win over world number one and defending champion Jason Day.

“I felt confident. I felt confident in myself. I felt confident in what I was doing. Felt confident in my golf swing, my putting, my chipping,” said Walker, who had missed four cuts from his last eight events but found something “clicked” over the last nine holes of last week’s Canadian Open.

“Kind of tried to wrap myself around that; that everything was feeling good, and to go with that and trust what I was doing. Trust all the stuff that I have been working on, and that’s what I tried to apply out there.”

It was an arduous day on the water-logged Baltusrol, as Walker and the leaders came in early Sunday morning to play all 18 holes of the third round before a three-hour break ahead of their tee times for the final round.

“It was a test today, it really was,” said Walker. “It’s tough walking, soft and wet and nasty, and it just kind of wears on you.

“It was nice to have the long break in between the rounds. I got to go back to my bus. I took a hot shower. I got rubbed down.

“Went back. Took a shower, relaxed, laid on the couch. Kind of fell asleep for a little bit. It was great. I think it’s exactly what I needed to do.”

 – DAY’S EAGLE-

Walker ran off nine pars in a row on the front nine of the final round but had Day and British Open champion Henrik Stenson breathing down on his neck, one shot back at the turn.

The American, a five-time PGA Tour winner, holed out from a greenside bunker to birdie the 10th and rolled in a 30-footer for birdie at 11 to lead by two. A birdie at 17 gave him a three-shot lead.

The biggest test awaited on the par-five 18th.

Australian Day made eagle to cut Walker’s three-shot lead to one, requiring him to make par for victory.

“When he holes out for eagle on the last hole … it was still game time,” said Walker, who saw the eagle from back in the fairway as he waited to hit.

Walker said he and his long time caddie Andy Sanders, who he met at Baltusrol when both were playing in the 2000 U.S. Amateur, decided to go for the green as dictated by the distance and the good lie.

“I was standing out there on the fairway and we just said, ‘let’s go for it.’ I figured, 19 times out of 20, you’re going to make a five going for the green from right there,” Walker said.

“I literally hit it in the worst place you could hit it,” he said about the shot that landed in deep rough some 30 yards right of the pin.

But Walker popped it out of the thick grass some 35 feet beyond the cup. Needing two putts to win, he ran the first putt three feet past.

“Ended up having to make a little, you know, tester coming in and just buried it. It was awesome.”