Walshe proves her worth for Cup team

At times, she was sure she'd get picked. Other times, she wasn't convinced. "It was," said Alison Walshe, "kind of uneasy at times."

It was early January and the calls from the United States Golf Association would be made the following week, so there was little Walshe could do except to prove she belonged on the prestigious Curtis Cup team. The Harder Hall Women's Invitational in Sebring, Fla., was that opportunity, and with grit, the woman from Westford went out and won, closing with rounds of 68-68 for a 7-under-par 281, three strokes better than her nearest competitor.

No surprise, soon after came the call asking Walshe, a senior at the University of Arizona, to join the premier amateurs in the country for the Curtis Cup this spring.

"I'm not sure whether I would have been on the team," said Walshe, "but obviously winning had an effect."

Walshe will be the first from Massachusetts to represent the US in the Curtis Cup against Great Britain and Ireland since Noreen Friel in 1978, and what makes it even sweeter is the fact the competition will be held May 31-June 1 at fabled St. Andrews in Scotland.

"That will be really cool. I've played links golf on family visits back to Ireland, so I'm looking forward to it," said Walshe, who had spent a few days in Florida with her Curtis Cup teammates.

Since she was born in Ireland, Walshe is eligible to play for Great Britain and Ireland, but that never was a possibility, she said. Her US citizenship qualifies her for Team USA, which will be gunning for its sixth straight victory.

For Walshe, it's an achievement that serves as a testament to her perseverance. She spent her freshman year at Boston College, but chose to transfer to Tulane. Things were going beautifully there, but in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Tulane was forced to eliminate many sports, including women's golf. The University of Arizona has been a great fit and Walshe's profile has been raised. She won last summer's North and South Amateur at Pinehurst No. 2 and is fifth in the Golfweek/Titleist rankings for college women.

Today, Walshe is entered in a qualifier in Superstition Mountain, Ariz., for the March 27-30 Safeway International, which will be the fifth LPGA Tour event of the season but the first in the continental US.

Better be ready

You can ask James Driscoll of Brookline how much the PGA Tour landscape has changed. With purses through the roof and the FedExCup offering even greater piles of cash, gone are the days when members eased into the season. Many used to ignore the West Coast start and wait until the Tour hit Florida, but no more. Consider Driscoll, who has PGA Tour status, though having earned it as No. 24 on the Nationwide Tour money list in 2007, his category number is well down the list and thus he has been eligible for just one of the first four full-field events, the Sony Open in Hawaii. Thankfully, Driscoll shot 66-69-73-68 -276, finished joint 20th, and earned $59,572. He'll tee it up today at Pebble Beach knowing he needs some good play to keep getting into events . . . Billy Andrade, 150th on the money list a year ago, was in Hawaii to help fill out the pro-am at the Mercedes-Benz Championship, but when told he wouldn't get in the next week's event, the Sony, Andrade flew home. Sure enough, as he retrieved his luggage in Atlanta and headed to his house, Andrade got a call from the tournament director that a spot had become available. "Just my luck," said Andrade, who entertained thoughts of turning right around, then thought better of it. He got into the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, missed the cut, and will get his second start at Pebble . . . Doug LaBelle is a reminder that you can still do things the old-fashioned way. Having finished 138th on the money list in '07, he wasn't eligible for the Sony, so he attempted the Monday qualifier. He won a playoff for the fourth spot and parlayed that into $113,571 thanks to a tie for 10th, which also got him into the Buick Invitational, where he earned $65,260 more. Ineligible for last week's FBR Open, LaBelle posted a sizzling 63 to win the Monday qualifier and rolled that into $13,080 more to move to 46th on the money list.

Not on the list

It was duly noted that at one of the great party stops on Tour, the FBR, John Daly was not included in the field. He was given a sponsor's exemption in 2007, which was his 10th consecutive appearance in the event, but organizers didn't extend one this time. Daly was taken aback, but maybe what worked against him was all the withdrawals Daly has accumulated the last two seasons, many of them as a sponsor's exemption. One of Daly's best friends on Tour, Pat Perez, is concerned about the situation. "I love John to death, but I just don't know what it's going to take for him to want to [quit drinking and take care of himself]," said Perez. "He actually wants to do it, too. But I don't know what it's going to take - a miracle? I have no idea. I wish to God he would turn it around because he's so good for the game." . . . Perez, 31, is a hothead and admitted partier, but he said he has calmed down. He's taken on a trainer, Joey Diovisalvi, who gained fame for his work with Vijay Singh, and said he's serious about taking care of himself. But he offered a disclaimer: "It's not like I checked into the Army. But it's a different routine and I like it."

Something to think about

Do you think that . . .

Part of Ernie Els's three-year plan to get to No. 1 in the world rankings includes the provision that Tiger Woods retires immediately?

Ian Poulter should start with more modest goals - like winning a PGA Tour event, or finishing top five in a major - before he suggests that it's him against Tiger.

There have been people spiking Poulter's water as well as his hair?

The European Tour will eventually get around to holding a tournament in Europe?

Michelle Wie is the first 18-year-old eligible for comeback player of the year?

Getting on his nerves

After the third round of the FBR Open in Scottsdale, Ariz., Rich Beem was asked about the atmosphere. "It's the largest topless bar in the world," said Beem. "There's no top on it and it's one big bar out there." Beem insisted he was so nervous at the 162-yard, par-3 16th, where upward of 25,000 fans were jammed into a small arena to watch players hit 7-, 8-, and 9-irons, that "I could barely draw the club back." When a reporter suggested that was a bit of a stretch, Beem shook his head. "I'm telling you, you try that shot with 25,000 people screaming at you." . . . J.B. Holmes was asked if he got treated roughly by the crowd at 16 in Round 2. "No," he said. "I was playing with Freddie [Couples], so they didn't even know who I was out there." . . . Give credit to Holmes for the way he beat the overwhelming crowd favorite, Phil Mickelson. Down a stroke after having squandered a two-shot lead at the start of Sunday, Holmes birdied the par-4 18th to tie Mickelson, then birdied it again to win the one-hole playoff. It was good stuff, but when the post-round talk centered around Holmes's immense power and how it could translate into a Ryder Cup spot, you wanted to put up the stop sign. In just his third year on Tour, Holmes already has two wins, but both have come at bombs-away TPC Scottsdale, where he is 36 under in 10 rounds. Good for him. Terrific players named Mickelson, Singh, Lee Janzen, and Mark Calcavecchia have won there, too, so Holmes is in good company. But consider what I would argue are the most demanding tournaments he has played in his young career - Wachovia, The Players, The Memorial, US Open, British Open, PGA Championship, and Bridgestone Invitational. He is 60 over par in 32 rounds in those affairs, and if you take away the FBR, Holmes has just four top 10s in 53 starts. In other words, he's still got a lot to prove.

Local knowledge?

Holmes's focus on the US Ryder Cup team is understandable. The matches will be held in September at Valhalla Golf Club in his native state of Kentucky and just mentioning the competition seemed fitting, because it was a week when captain Paul Azinger announced he would exercise a home-team prerogative and go back to four alternate-shot matches to start both Friday and Saturday play. Azinger made one crucial stop before going public with the decision: He told Woods. "He was on the putting green [at the Buick Invitational] and when I told him he didn't even blink," said Azinger. "He simply said, 'You mean, the way it used to be?' " Azinger said it was proof again that Woods has a keen eye, because for years the format called for foursomes first, then four-ball, but in 1997 European captain Seve Ballesteros opted to switch the order and some people are convinced it played a big part in Europe's win that year. Certainly, it added a new twist, because four-ball matches have started play in 2002, '04, and '06, all resounding victories for Europeans. The only US win since 1993 - in '99 at The Country Club - saw US captain Ben Crenshaw opt for foursomes, then four-ball, and while Azinger doesn't think it's a coincidence, he concedes he has one clear reason for changing the order. "We've lost five of the last six," he said. "Why not change things?" Azinger said after he made his announcement, a couple of rookies came up to him and asked, "Is this the first time they're going to play alternate-shot in the Ryder Cup?"

Black Knight's night

The Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund has confirmed an impressive sweep of "The Big Three," as Gary Player has agreed to accept the group's highest honor at its 59th annual banquet, May 19 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Player will be presented the 13th Francis Ouimet Award for lifelong contributions to golf, following in the footsteps of famed contemporaries Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. They combined to win a resounding 34 professional major championships . . . The staff at the Harmon Club in Rockland will conduct a junior program Saturday from 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. aimed at those who are serious about playing high school and college golf . . . The annual National Golf Expo will be held Feb. 15-17 at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston. Karen Palacios-Jansen, one of the nation's top instructors, will be on hand, as will long-drive champion Eric Lastowka. Tickets are $10 for adults, $9 for senior citizens, and children under the age of 12 will be admitted free with a ticketed adult. For information, call 800-756-7606 . . . Bank of America Championship officials will have a booth at the expo and the first 500 visitors will receive a two-for-one ticket deal to the 2008 event at Nashawtuc Country Club in Concord. And if you'd like to volunteer for the championship, you can sign up at the booth . . . Granite Links GC in Quincy was voted as having one of the top 50 19th holes in the country by Golf Digest.

Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com.