Jimmy Walker on verge of USPGA Tour card

BY Bruce Young | Nationwide Tour | 2004 Knoxville Open | Round Three | 06 Jun 2004

For 25-year-old Texas based professional Jimmy Walker, the final round of the Knoxville Open may well represent his most significant day in golf.

Walker is now just one good round away from playing on the USPGA Tour. He will play there in 2005 in any case, courtesy of his already brilliant season on the Nationwide Tour, but a win in this week’s Knoxville Open will qualify him immediately for the USPGA Tour via the ’Battlefield Promotion’ rule. A player winning three events in a season on the Nationwide Tour gains instant access to the PGA Tour via this rule and with Walker having already won in Panama and Louisiana this year, his graduation is looming.

Walker took the third round lead in Knoxville today following a brilliant round of eight under 64. Walker was six under through eight holes today, once again highlighting his capacity to go low. In Walker’s thirty three rounds on the Nationwide Tour this season (including this week), he is a cumulative seventy three under par including five rounds of 65 or better.

Walker is yet another example of how talent, when combined with experience, will eventually win out. He is in his second season on the Nationwide Tour although he did also play several events on the Buy.Com Tour in 2002 as a non member. Last season he played eighteen times on the Nationwide Tour where he recorded five top tens including a runner up placing at the Permian Basin Charity Classic one shot behind D.J. Brigman.

Walker would go on to finish in 31st position on the 2003 money list. He missed his USPGA Tour card at the Tour School in Florida last season by just two shots but he need not bother this year as, even if he does not win tomorrow, the $US221,000 that he has accumulated already this year, ensures him that he will be graduating at season’s end, if not sooner.

Walker played the Canadian Tour in 2002 along with the aforementioned events on the Buy.Com Tour winning during the Scottsdale Swing. He had also won on the Tight Lies and Gateway Tours during 2002 and 2003.

The Baylor University (Texas) graduate now appears on the verge of another graduation, this time one that appears likely to have an even greater impact on his career.