PONTE VEDRA BEACH — As Sunday wore on and on and on during a four-hour weather delay in the Players Championship, the odds only seemed to grow longer for long-shot contenders Danny Walker and Bud Cauley. When the stoppage began, Walker was two shots behind then-leader Rory McIlroy, with Cauley three shots back.
The pair had a lot of time to eat, nap, gab and, of course, contemplate what they had already accomplished over the first three days at TPC Sawgrass—and how it was nearly as big as earning the $4.5 million first prize. Nearly.
Both of them got into the PGA Tour’s flagship tournament when other players withdrew, and both possibly changed the course of their careers in a single week.
After three-putting his last hole on Friday to make the cut on the number, the 29-year-old Walker charged up the leaderboard with a 66 in the third round in front of throng of friends, and he then closed with a two-under 70 to tie for sixth place. The effort moved the Florida native and regular tourist of the Stadium Course up 79 spots to 46th in the FedEx Cup standings. Walker had only played six times ever on tour and three times on the weekend.
Cauley’s journey has been far more harrowing, making his career-best money week here at TPC Sawgrass ($843,750) all the more emotional. The former amateur star saw his life sidetracked by an auto accident and three lost years of seeking medical answers. He's been playing the last season-plus on a Major Medical Extension. With only six starts left to earn a lot of FedEx Cup points to retain his card for the rest of 2025, Cauley—on his 35th birthday—put those concerns aside by shooting 74 on Sunday to join Walker in sixth place. He needed a minimum T-18 to get his status wrapped up, and he now is 47th in the FedEx Cup.
There were mixed emotions for both men as they spoke after Rory McIlroy and J.J. Spaun finished tied on the top, forcing a three-hole aggregate Monday playoff.
“It's kind of hard right now to think about that,” Cauley said his result. “A little disappointed with how the day went. I did a lot of things well this week. To finish top 10 in a tournament this big is a great step forward for me, and I'll try to build on that the rest of the year.”
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Despite getting into the Players, Cauley wasn’t even guaranteed a start in next week’s Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor, Fla. Now he’s in the field because of his top-10 finish, and as he noted, he’ll get the opportunity to build on this.
“I have a lot more confidence, I think, leaving here today with more than what I showed up with, which I think will help me throughout the year,” he said. “I'm really excited. I'm really happy that I'm playing next week, just so that I can maybe take tomorrow off and then get right back at it Tuesday and try to clean up some of these things.”
Cauley started the day three shots back of Spaun, the 54-hole leader. But he three-putted the third hole and hit a poor drive on the fourth to suffer back-to-back bogeys. Cauley’s round continued to be up and down with another bogey/birdie exchange on Nos. 8 and 9, and then after the weather delay, he hit a wedge over the green at No. 11, got a deep lie in the rough and bogeyed the par 5.
“That was a killer,” said Cauley, who bounced back with a birdie at 12, only to bogey 13.
“I just couldn't get it going. I'd follow up a good hole with a bad hole, and like I said before, just unfortunately too many mistakes,” he said.
A former star at Alabama while also going undefeated on the 2009 U.S. Walker Cup team, Cauley earned his PGA Tour card in only eight starts. But he couldn’t produce a breakthrough win, and in 2018 he was badly injured in a car accident during the week of the Memorial Tournament. He returned for a couple of seasons, but continued physical problems caused him to take three years off. Then a surgery on his chest and ribs corrected his problems, and Cauley returned at the beginning of last season. While playing on a Major Medical Extension, he was required to earn a certain number of FedEx Cup points in 27 starts to keep his card.
That bid was not going well, with Cauley claiming only four top-25 finishes in the first 21 of those opportunities. But getting into the Players as an alternate, when Lee Hodges withdrew on Monday, was an enormous opportunity for points, money and, maybe most importantly, a chance to prove something to himself among the deepest field in a PGA Tour event.
“I've always believed that I can compete with the best guys in the world, and I should be hopefully winning tournaments and playing on Presidents Cup teams and Ryder Cup teams,” Cauley said. “That's always been my dream, and I still believe that I can do that.
“Yeah, this helps a lot. I felt like I contended this week and still feel like I made a lot of mistakes that I can clean up pretty easily. I think that's what I'll take from this the most is that I was right there and it wasn't like I was playing perfect.”
When Walker learned on Thursday morning that he was in the field due to Jason Day’s withdrawal because of illness, he admitted that he had to go to his car and collect himself. Only four years ago, the former University of Virginia player contemplated quitting and was working in Jacksonville as a server in a chain restaurant, Bahama Breeze. Ultimately, he improved his game and earned his tour card with a top-30 season finish last year on the Korn Ferry Tour.
To finally get his first start in the Players was extra special for Walker, who lives in the Ponte Vedra area and figures he played the Stadium Course more than 100 times.
With many of his friends in two for the weekend rounds, Walker called the experience “exciting” and “surreal.”
“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “That’s the position you want to be in, just having a chance to win a big event. Had a lot of fun. Overall, I think I played well and handled it well. No regrets out there, for sure.”
Five back at the outset on Sunday, Walker was playing well in the final round at three under through 12 holes. and he said he was drawing off the experience of playing with Ludvig Aberg in the third round of January’s Farmers Insurance Open. But he immediately bogeyed the par-3 13th after the break and parred his way home.
“Overall, I think played well and handled it well,” Walker said. “No regrets out there for sure.”