After battle with Lyme disease, golfer Jimmy Walker aims to resurrect his career

SINGAPORE – Everything seemed to be going well for Jimmy Walker when he won the 2016 PGA Championship.

The American had been on an upward trajectory since claiming a breakthrough victory at the 2013 Frys.com Open, his 188th start on the PGA Tour.

He captured five other titles, including the Major triumph, on the Tour in the next three years and was also part of the United States team who won the Ryder Cup in 2016.

But things quickly went south as Walker revealed in 2017 that he had been diagnosed with Lyme disease, an illness transmitted by tick bites. Symptoms include headaches, brain fog, insomnia, nausea, joint pain, and weight gain or loss.

He told The Straits Times: “I was playing very well, the best I’d been playing. I’d just won a Major and was playing in Ryder Cups, and Presidents Cups, winning a lot and playing well.

“In the beginning, it wasn’t that big of a deal but as it progressed, I was so fatigued, I just couldn’t practise any more. All I could do was get up and go play and it really took a toll on my game and then the mental part of it kicked in and it just got really tough.”

The 46-year-old is in town for the Porsche Singapore Classic at the Laguna National Golf Resort Club this week.

Walker initially thought he had caught a bug when he felt unwell at the 2016 World Cup of Golf in Melbourne, but he realised it was something more serious as he felt tired all the time in the following weeks. The diagnosis brought clarity, but it did not shield him from the profound effects the condition had on his game and his life.

He said: “The best parts of my game – pitching, chipping, putting – just kind of went away. I lost some of the feeling and it’s hard to describe. Then your confidence starts to wane because nothing feels right any more. I felt like a different person every day. If I worked on something, it was hard to take it to the next state.

“Even when I wrote it down, I could go back out and I would have a hard time doing it again.”

Off the course, he struggled to remember things and recalled how he would cook and leave the pot boiling because he had forgotten about it.

Once, he forgot to turn a tap off and ended up flooding the floor.

But the worst part was not being able to do things with his two children, adding that he “felt like a bad father, bad parent because all you want to do is lay down because that’s all you could do”.

From the start of 2017 to 2022, he slid down the rankings from world No. 20 to 329, and he was ready to walk away from the sport. But there was still a desire to compete. He said: “I’m still a competitor at heart and I know I’ve still got all the talent I need. It’s a matter of going out and doing it, so that’s why we’re here – to come out and compete. I enjoy that and I look forward to having a chance to do something special.”

After spending most of his career on the PGA Tour in the United States, Walker is now looking to resurrect his game on the DP World Tour.

Ranked 550th in the world, he has missed the cut in all four events he has played in 2025, but Walker remains confident of his abilities. He said: “I’m 46 now, and I’d like to write a new chapter and show I’ve still got it, I can still do it. It’s there. I just need the door to open a little bit and walk through it.”

On March 21, Walker carded an even-par 72 for joint-69th spot in the delayed first round of the Singapore Classic, seven strokes behind leaders Marcus Armitage and Matthew Jordan.