Jimmy Walker started 187 events on the PGA Tour and never experienced victory. But with last week’s win at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Walker has won three times this season and may have played his way onto the Ryder Cup team.

Walker became only the fourth player since 1999 to win three times in his first eight starts in the 2013-14 PGA Tour season. With his victory last week on the Monterey Peninsula, Walker has made 15 percent of his career starts in California, but has made 45 percent of his earnings there. Ten of his 23 career top-10s have come in California.

“I always believed I could win,” Walker said. “I think that’s what you have to believe to be out here, that you belong and that you can win and I’ve always felt and believed that. And finally it happened. And it’s cool that it happened a couple more times. Quickly.”

Some of the success goes to master instructor Butch Harmon, with whom Walker began working two years ago. And caddie Andy Sanders gets an assist for giving Walker a pep talk during the final round at Pebble Beach.

Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson has been checking out Walker’s bio and knows a little bit about him. Watson said, “Studied him a little bit. He’s 35 years old. He has an interest in astronomy, which I do. The first book I read was “All About Astronomy.” If he makes the Ryder Cup team, maybe we’ll have some common things to talk about.”