Since 1980, only twelve players have achieved the feat of hitting all 18 greens in regulation in a round of golf on the South Course at Torrey Pines. The latest addition to this exclusive list accomplished it this Wednesday, during the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open. The author could well have been Ludvig Aberg (-9), a specialist in this area, but on this occasion, it would have been impossible for the simple reason that the Swede opened the tournament on the other course. Aberg simply delivered a scorecard of 63 strokes on the North and took the lead early on. It’s his best opening round on the PGA Tour and also the first time he’s led after the initial round. This is how this young man operates, a bulldozer with a silencer.
So, who is the author of the feat? Well, an unknown who has yet to be invited to the Davos meetings of golf. Unknown, but intriguing. It is Danny Walker (-7), a 29-year-old player competing in his fourth tournament on the PGA Tour. He earned his card last year after finishing among the top 30 on the Korn Ferry Tour without winning a single tournament, although he does have two victories in 2018 and 2022 on the PGA Tour Canada.
Walker’s round of 65 strokes is a masterpiece. You won’t see many results like this on the South during the week. It’s even less likely that other players will hit all the greens. Doing something like this at Torrey Pines places you in a new dimension, even if he missed the first two cuts of the year (Sony Open and American Express). Yes, it could be a one-day wonder, and it’s not advisable to exaggerate, but he has already earned attention. The last to do something like this was the Scotsman Martin Laird in 2019. We agree he’s not Tiger Woods, but he has a good career on the American circuit with four victories.
Walker is an intriguing character. He claims that as a child, he dreamed of being a Formula One driver or a guitarist in a famous rock band. He was close to neither. He has been playing the instrument since he was 16, but he never came close to being the new Steve Van Zandt. As for cars, he is simply a Ferrari enthusiast. He is happy with the signing of Lewis Hamilton. Another of his feats is having delivered a bogey-free card. You have to be very precise from the tee to avoid getting into any trouble on the South. It also helped, of course, to have a great day on the greens. He made five putts of over three metres.
Walker’s feat is easily measured with numbers. Of the top 17 players at the Farmers after the first round, fourteen played on the North, and only three did so on the South. The other two were KH Lee (-5) and Lee Hodges (-5). As for the leaders, the presence of Aldrich Potgieter (-6) and Antoine Rozner (-5) stands out. The Frenchman was making his debut with the PGA Tour card, and his introduction couldn’t have been more positive. He seems ready to follow in the footsteps of his compatriot Matthieu Pavon, the defending champion. By the way, Pavon started with a modest round of +1 on the South. He has room for manoeuvre.
Hideki Matsuyama (-4) should not be overlooked either, as he started on the South and could do some serious damage on the North today, although it won’t be easy to knock Aberg off the lead, at least if he continues playing with the determination and consistency of the first day, an easy golf, hitting many greens (16) and taking advantage of the more generous holes on this course.
There were also some significant setbacks, especially on the South course. Max Homa (+5) is starting to become a regular occurrence, while Matt Wallace (+5) seems to have paid the price for playing the Team Cup, Dubai, and rushing to San Diego, the other side of the world, to play the Farmers.
