Three years after his first try at Waialae, Walker's back in a big way

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HONOLULU -- Since turning back the clock is an unattainable proposition, regardless of its irresistibility, Jimmy Walker is willing to enjoy one day when the exercise of "what if" actually led to a definitive and encouraging response.

After an opening 65, Jimmy Walker wasn't looking back (Gross/WireImage)

Inside the Numbers

Walker's First Round

Category Total Eagles 1 Birdies 4 Pars 12 Bogeys 1 Double Bogeys 0 Other 0 Driving Accuracy 50.0% Driving Distance 317.0 yds. Greens in Regulation 72.2% Putts per Round 27 Putts per GIR 1.615 Sand Saves 66.7%

What if Walker had not hurt himself on the driving range at Waialae Country Club a few days prior to the start of the 2005 Sony Open in Hawaii? What if he hadn't wrenched his neck so badly that he could barely get out of bed? How would his game have held up after a season in which he earned Nationwide Tour Player of the Year honors? Could he have been competitive? Could he even have contended?

What if?

The answer came Thursday, three years later, but still with plenty of time remaining in a career that has retained its potential. On a calm morning on the island of Oahu, Walker became the Texas stranger on a crowded leaderboard with a 5-under-par 65 that set the pace in the first round of the Sony Open in Hawaii. Afternoon starters Heath Slocum and Steven Marino eventually caught him, while K.J. Choi posted a late bogey-free 64 for the outright lead.

If there was no poetic justice in the San Antonio pro playing so well in his first event after regaining his PGA TOUR card via the 25th and final spot on the '07 Nationwide Tour money list, then there was certainly a whiff of irony. Walker wasn't sure how well he might perform when he learned that he was in the year's first full-field event, but he sure knew how he felt about returning.

He felt hope. And he felt trepidation.

Mostly the latter.

"When I saw I was getting in, I'm like, 'Oh, good, I get to go back to Hawaii, I've got some good memories,'" Walker, who turns 29 next week, said with a smirk, drawing laughs from his media audience. "My wife [Erin] stayed home, and it hasn't been a great couple trips for us. I was like, I have to go because just from the status; when you get in, you've got to play."

Play he did. Walker took advantage of the calm conditions to post four birdies and an eagle against one bogey on the par-70 Waialae layout whose only defense was a gnarly rough that he either avoided to set up his scoring chances or escaped on the way to relatively stress-free pars. He began the day with a 9-foot birdie at No. 10, a dicey 480-yard par 4 and capped it with an eagle from 12 feet at the 506-yard par-5 ninth after a 7-iron second shot from just 180 yards.

"It was solid stuff," he said.

He smiled a bit, but his face and body language suggested that he didn't want to get too satisfied. His has been a strange and trying odyssey back to this place, back to the PGA TOUR.

The injury he suffered here in '05 was the result of a bulging disc. He managed to play in just nine events that season before having to shut down his game for the rest of year. He returned in '06 on a major medical extension and promptly missed the cut with rounds of 80-70--150.

That initiated a season of struggle and doubt, and he lost his card after making nine of 21 cuts. He changed teachers, employing Todd Anderson out of Sea Island, Ga., rebuilt his swing and confidence, and grinded out a season on the Nationwide Tour in '07 that included his third career victory at the National Mining Association Pete Dye Classic.

Walker, his neck healed, is not inclined to jerk his head around and look on the past or lament what time has been lost. He has never been one to feel even the least bit sorry for himself. He simply couldn't at the time, and for good reason. Reality. His wife's mother was battling breast cancer. His best friend's mother succumbed from the disease.

Walker felt bad because he couldn't do more to make others feel good.

"You know, you don't want to sit there and go, 'why me, why me.' We had a lot of other stuff going on at the same time," he said. "It was just brutal. And then all that with me didn't help the morale of everybody. You feel like you've got a team at home, and when things are going bad you want to do well for them. It was tough. It was a tough blow for everybody. Not the way you want to start. But you've just got to persevere."

Fortunately, golfers are particularly equipped to deal with some struggles, because golf on a day-to-day basis is all about managing ebb and flow, ups and downs. "I think if anybody could do it, it would be a golfer," he said. "Dealing with adversity, I think it's not something that comes easy for us but I think easier than maybe some other sports, I don't know."

He paused. Then he pointed out that golf is filled with more downs than ups. Pessimism is just one of the many adversaries a player constantly either ignores, battles or resists, depending on its particular pull on a given day.

Optimism is the player's faithful companion. But Walker is too savvy to be seduced by its powers, either. Thursday was only one round, and he proved something to himself and to his fellow players. But there might not be a rainbow at the end of this week's tale.

"It's too early for that," Walker cautioned when asked about what potential redemption could be ahead on this tropical beachhead. "I just want to go out and keep playing well. You'd love for the fairy tale ending, but there's a lot of golf left. I feel good, and I hit it well, and I'm putting well. Just keep all that going and it'll be good."