After high school, Walsh worked a summer as a cart boy at his neighborhood course, Twin Hills Country Club, before he enrolled at Springfield College. He played one year of intercollegiate golf, establishing himself as the fourth best player on the team, before a disturbing incident in his dorm room in 1995.
According to the alleged victim, a woman who was dating Walsh's roommate, Walsh was so miffed that she and his roommate might spend time on his bed while he was away that he booby-trapped his sheets with a stainless steel, six-pronged blender blade.
The woman, whose account was corroborated by Walsh's former roommate, said she vividly recalls being startled and slightly injured when she sat on the knife-sharp object. She said the episode forever changed her view of Walsh, whom she had known since high school and Walsh's roommate had considered his best friend since childhood.
The campus police and dean of students were alerted, and though no charges were filed, Walsh soon was dismissed from the golf team.
"It was a very malicious act," the woman said. "The fact that someone you considered a friend would do something that could possibly harm you like that is very creepy."
