LA JOLLA, Calif. – Danny Walker’s Wednesday 65 was the best round of the day at the Farmers Insurance Open, even if it wasn’t the lowest.

Walker was tied for second after a 7-under opening round, two shots off the pace of Ludvig Åberg, but Walker was the lone player within four strokes that played on Torrey Pines’ South Course. The North Course played nearly two-and-a-half strokes easier than the traditionally tough South Course. Only three of the top 18 on the leaderboard played the South routing on Wednesday.

Walker grabbed a little piece of history around the picturesque property, too.
The recent Korn Ferry Tour grad hit 18 greens at Torrey Pines’ difficult South Course, the first to accomplish the feat since Martin Laird in 2019. It’s just the 12th time any TOUR player has hit every green at the South Course.

“One of those days where driver was working, really just never forced the issue out there,” Walker said. “Was really just trying to hit the middle of the green a lot of times and then rolled in some putts and that’s how I shot a good score.”

And if hitting every green wasn’t enough, Walker had the best putting day of any player on the South Course. Walker gained more than three strokes on the greens and rolled in over 148 feet of putts, leading the field in both categories.
It was a day everything clicked for Walker, who missed his first two TOUR cuts as a member and was struggling to acclimate to life on the big tour.

“The first two weeks I was definitely just stressing myself out too much,” Walker said. “This was the first day I really just got myself to just relax and play golf and enjoy the day, just see targets and hit shots and not worry about too much.”