To some, a vindictive videotaper

Patriots ex-aide and accuser Walsh portrayed as calculating, bitter

March 10, 2008|Bob Hohler, Globe Staff

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"I'm a big Pats fan, so when I saw his résumé, I thought to myself, it's a little bit weird that he would get out of that element," Hamilton said. "But some people get bitten by the golf bug and switch careers in mid-life. I had seen it before, so I looked at it like that."

Walsh left after one season for a similar job at Troon Country Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. But he continued to check the PGA website and tried to return to the Cape when Hamilton posted a job for an assistant pro in 2006.

"He thought he would like to come back," Hamilton said, "but he didn't have the credentials for the job."

So Walsh ventured further west, landing in Maui in November 2006. Ten months later came Spygate and a new chapter in his strained relationship with the Patriots.

Amid the saga, Walsh's PGA membership was suspended in December because he failed to meet expected progress with his educational courses, according to a PGA official.

Now, Walsh remains the chief protagonist in a drama only he can help complete. With his lawyer and the NFL close to completing negotiations for him to divulge what he knows, much of the sports world waits, wondering whether suspicions about Walsh's role in Spygate are overblown or he holds secrets that could make Belichick, Kraft, and their franchise football pariahs, their reputations disgraced.

Jim McCabe of the Globe staff and correspondent Pat Bigold contributed to this report.

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