Arron Oberholser watches his tee shot on the 17th hole yesterday.

The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl

NORTON, Mass. — We all know you’re not supposed to root when they hand you a press pass. Too bad. I’m pulling for Arron Oberholser in this weekend’s Deutsche Bank Championship.

I knew Arron before he was Mr. Hot Shot pro golfer, champion of the AT&T Pro-Am at Pebble Beach last year and winner of more than $3.5 million over his last two seasons on the PGA Tour. Ten years ago, he was a house guest of ours for two years in a row when he played in the Northeast Amateur at Wannamoisett.

Today he looks the same, swings the same and clearly owns a razor sharp memory.

“Hey, how’s Maggie?” he asked yesterday after his round at the TPC Boston. Maggie was two years old when Arron slept upstairs, ate chicken and pasta at the Roast House on Newport Avenue and got torn up by Donald Ross’ masterpiece in Rumford.

“I remember that golf course was hard. I dropped out with heatstroke. That was brutal,” he said.

It was muggy and humid that year in late June but nothing out of the ordinary. Unless you were from San Mateo, Calif., just outside San Francisco. And you didn’t eat anything before your morning tee time because nerves were scrambling your stomach.

“I eat now. I learned that from Wannamoisett,” he said. “I felt that same thing at the PGA (at Southern Hills in Oklahoma). I got that nauseous feeling like I was going to throw up. And then I couldn’t see straight. I put a real cold towel around me and felt better.”

We remember Oberholser as a confident, if not cocky, kid who was an All-American at San Jose State. He wasn’t a country clubber like so many others at the Northeast, and seemed to carry the “I’ve-got-something-to-prove” chip on his shoulders.

“I used to be a Nervous Nelly, if you remember,” he said. “That kind of fueled me to play well, but I was so nervous I couldn’t eat. It was that nervous concentration that helped me when I was younger. Now I’ve been able to calm down and just realize, hey, it’s just a golf shot.”

That attitude change has been a vital one for the 32-year-old Oberholser. Now in his fifth season on the Tour, he’s knocking on the door of stardom. After winning the AT&T and more than $2.4 million last year, he’s struggled with injuries in 2007. He missed the first six weeks with back troubles and is still playing with a fracture of the small hamate bone in his left hand that was discovered in July. Even so, he finished tied for 45th at the British Open and played through the 100 degree temps at the PGA to finish fourth (68-72-70-69) and pocket $308,000.

This week, he’s right in the mix. He shot 2-under-par 69 on Friday and made four quick birdies yesterday on his way to a 5-under 66. The 7-under score for the tournament puts him firmly in the top 10 and in position to keep rolling in the FedEx Cup race.

This is all tall timber for a kid who speaks loudly and doesn’t much care if you don’t appreciate his opinions. Asked yesterday by the press if there is too much of a focus in golf on Tiger Woods, Oberholser backed up the kid he battled in California junior matches.

“Tiger drives the entire game and whoever says otherwise is smoking something. The focus is mainly on him but it’s been that way for 10 years. The shame of it is when he breaks (Jack) Nicklaus’ records and quits, the rest of us are hosed. The purses will go back to what they were before, which isn’t bad. But he drives the whole game.”

After he finished signing autographs, Oberholser was asked about his journey from college star to today, where he lives out his dreams playing Augusta, Pebble Beach and Sawgrass.

“I’ve come a long way but I know I’m not getting the most out of what I can do,” he said. “I’ve tasted some of it at every level. I’ve won at every level. I’ve won at this level. The next level after this is winning multiple times and the next level after that is winning majors. I’ve contended in some majors and finished top 10 in some majors. Now I have to break through.

“Every once in a while I’ll kind of stop and think ‘hey, not bad for a middle-class kid from northern California who didn’t have every opportunity in the world.’ I’ve done pretty well for myself. But then I’ll stop myself and think, ‘I can do better.’ I think that’s the way most of us out here think. We’re driven. As long as you can continue to have that drive, it keeps you striving for more.”

We shook hands, wished each other luck and as Oberholser walked away he smiled and said, “make sure you say hi to Maggie.”

Sure will.

kmcnamar@projo.com