Jimmy Walker's slow start gains speed for Masters debut

There’s nothing flashy about Jimmy Walker as a golfer – until you realize what he’s done in the past six months.

Walker, 35, joins former Augusta State University star Patrick Reed as the first players since 1985 to make their Masters Tournament debuts after winning three times on the PGA Tour over a 12-month stretch following the previous year’s event. Neither Walker nor Reed, 23, had ever won before they went on their run.

Walker won the PGA Tour’s 2013-14 season-opening Frys.com in October, followed that three months later with a victory in the Sony Open and won at Pebble Beach in February, which vaulted him atop the FedEx Cup standings.

According to Sal Johnson of Golfstats.com, Denis Watson, in 1984, is the only other person dating back to 1970 to win three times in the year before his Masters debut. Watson won the Buick Open, the NEC World Series and in Las Vegas before playing in the 1985 Masters, where he tied for 53rd place.

Walker’s wins came after a solid, but winless seven-year career on the PGA Tour, which followed a stint on the Web.com Tour, where he won three times. He went 187 PGA Tour starts before his victory at the Frys.com.

“There are early bloomers and late bloomers,” Walker said. “I definitely think I’m blooming. I feel good.”

Walker said the victories are a “validation for me, a lot of years being out here and working hard. And to see it all kind of pay off, that’s what I’ve been waiting for.”

But he’ll leave it for others to say if he’s now among the game’s elite.

“That’s not up for me to decide,” Walker said. “I just go out and play golf. This is what I want to do and I’ve worked really hard to do it, to be here, and to be in this position and it’s really cool. I’ll let you guys (the media) figure all that stuff out.”

Walker will have an experienced hand showing him around Augusta National Golf Club during practice rounds. His instructor is Butch Harmon, the son of 1948 Masters champion Claude Harmon.

“I’m looking forward to getting out there and talking to him about the golf course,” Walker said of Harmon, who is ranked as the No. 1 golf instructor by Golf Digest this year. “I’ve been out a couple of times and played it so we’ve (Walker and his caddie) been charting it a little bit.

“It’s funny, it’s a golf course that you feel as if you’ve played it a thousand times because you’ve watched it on TV so many times,” Walker said.

Walker had a memorable experience at Augusta National in 2009 when a member helped get him and his father on the course as guests. The Walkers played two days and stayed in one of the cabins on the grounds.

”We played in January or December,” he said. “It was just a cool experience. The guy that took us was amazing. We had a great time. We played the par‑3 course. We did it all. It was ridiculous.

“My dad birdied three out of four par‑5s,” Walker said. “We had a blast. I don’t think it could have been any more special if I had played the tournament for the first time. It was me and my dad getting to do it, and it was really cool.”

And chilly. Walker remembers it was 38 degrees when they started play the second day.

“I think that’s the only place on the planet you will go out and play when it’s 38 and drizzling,” he said.

In his trips back since qualifying for the Masters, Walker said it has been “more (about) business. Just trying to read more of the greens and see more of the greens.”

Officially, he earned his Masters invitation by winning the Frys.com in October. This is the first season that the event – which had been part of the Fall Series – offered full FedEx Cup points and a Masters invitation to the champion.

The tournament was proud of that, and let Walker know it when he looked closely at his prizes.

“They had gotten a Masters flag and they stitched on it ‘2014, congratulations on going to the Masters’ so it was fun,” Walker said.