UVa Alum Danny Walker Finishes 6th at the Players Championship

Virginia alum Danny Walker placed 6th this past weekend at the Players Championship, a tournament he was a long shot to even play for. Walker joined the PGA tour in 2025 after finishing 28th on the Ferry Tour in 2024 to secure his spot in the top 30, earning himself PGA Tour status. In 2025, Walker’s best finish to this point was a 13th-placed finish at the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld. 

This past Thursday, Walker showed up to the Players Championship, ranked 284th in the Official World Golf Ranking and listed as the first alternate at TPC Sawgrass, which paid off with Jason Day withdrawing from the event due to an illness 90 minutes before his scheduled 8:46 am tee time, opening up a spot for the Virginia alum.

“It meant the world to me,” Walker told reporters Thursday, according to CNN. “Wanted to play in this event since I was a little kid, especially living here locally … I couldn’t have been more excited.” 

Walker was paired alongside Jordan Speith and Wyndham Clark, two major champions, and took full advantage of the opportunity. After shooting a 73 on day one, Walker started strong, shooting four under after 16 holes on day two, showing no fear on the course he grew up on and was familiar with despite now facing the pressure of large crowds and pro champions in his grouping.

After that, Walker teetered on the edge with bogeys on the final two holes but was able to make the cut and slip into the weekend at the one under-cut line, solidifying himself a payday at a course near his home in Bradenton, Florida. 

Then, playing with house money, Walker lined up alongside Shane Lowry in the first pairing of the weekend and took the golf world by storm, shooting a 66, six under par with zero bogeys despite the whipping winds of TPC Sawgrass, rifling himself up the rankings to put himself in the top ten. 

Walker, who graduated in 2017 from the University of Virginia and turned pro in 2018, had experienced a career of ups and downs, which included taking a job as a waiter at Bahama Breeze, a Caribbean restaurant chain, for two weeks in early 2022 before deciding he wanted to continue to pursue golf.

The decision to continue to pursue his professional golf career paid off as Walker woke up Sunday morning at the Players Championship in a top three grouping alongside Akshay Bhatia and Stephan Jaeger, knowing that securing a top-ten finish would guarantee him life-changing money. 

Stepping up to the tee, Walker parred the first hole before picking up a birdie on the second, setting the tone for the day where he would finish two under and nine under on the tournament to secure a 6th placed finish, good for $843,750 in earnings from what is known to many as the “5th Major.”