Virginia Golfer November / December 2014 | Page 33

CHRIS KEANE/USGA PHOTO ARCHIVES

roads shimmying under an oppressive sun.
Tallent, to this day, still talks with the twang
as smooth as farmer’s market honey.
What Tallent recalls about his introduction
to golf was that his father, Jonesy, had a huge
influence. This much he knows: He and his
brothers would wing plastic golf balls off the
house before their dad would get off work
and take them to the local nine-hole Allen
Golf Course, where occasionally the place
teemed, albeit chaotically, with tournaments
featuring 150 competitors.
The course was nothing special. It had sand
greens and rough that was at least a foot high.
A worker would pour used motor oil on the
thick sand to darken it and to keep it from
blowing. It was here that Tallent learned
how to be as accurate as a sharpshooter. He
pushed the laws of the Pythagorean theorem,
indeed finding that a straight line—from tee
to green—was the shortest distance between
two points.
Maybe it’s why Decker was adamant with
this: “He never gets in trouble. He’s always
consistent. He hits it right in the middle of the
fairway every time and puts it on the green.”
Tallent, often referred to as Mr. Steady
these days, got into the straight-on, fairwayand-green rhythm because he perfected the
use of his 3- and 4-irons. Every hole was
straightforward. No draws or fades required.
It’s not an exaggeration, either, to say that he
never really used a wedge until college.
But those old days on Allen Golf Course
channeled innocence. A family membership
cost $30, with greens fees just $1. His three
brothers and father would play as many as
three times a week. Along the course, the
people who maintained it allowed patrons to
come in for a respite.
“You could get a moon pie, baloney
sandwich and Dr. Pepper for a quarter in
there,” Tallent says. “For one quarter, I could
play 18 holes, have lunch, and then play 18
more. It was the old days, back in the 1960s
before things got so expensive.”

per outing his senior season. He earned firstteam all-state honors both years, attracting
attention from the college powerhouses.
The likes of UCLA, Duke and Louisiana
State University courted him. One time Press
Maravich, head coach of LSU at the time and
the father of fabled Pete Maravich, purposely
drove to see Tallent play.
“He told me to come to LSU and I would
be known as ‘Pistol’ Pat,’” Tallent says, in
reference to ‘Pistol Pete’ Maravich.
Yet there was little decision to be made.
Tallent’s older brother, Bob, had taken over

golfer. Word quickly got back to Mattare,
then a player-coach on the golf team. At that
time, collegiate basketball and golf seasons
didn’t conflict.
Mattare solicited Tallent during poker
games. Finally Tallent acquiesced, drove to
River Bend Country Club, the Colonials’
home course, and yanked out his driver.
“So he teed it up and I knew right there,”
says Mattare, the director of golf at Saucon
Valley Country Club since 1991. “I said, ‘You
have to play for me. You can definitely make
the top five, probably the top two.’

“The power. He was strong. He could
drive the ball a mile. He had great touch
around the greens. He was also extremely
competitive. Pat hated to lose and he
hated to lose on the golf course.”
— GENE MATTARE, PAT TALLENT’S FORMER GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
GOLF TEAMMATE AND COACH

the George Washington University squad
and made it clear where his brother would go.
“He basically said, ‘I’m in charge of
recruiting and if you don’t come to play for
me, how do you think that will make me
look?’ ” says Tallent chuckling.
Playing for his brother was never an issue
because both were tenacious and hard-nosed,
cut from the same mold. Tallent always
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