Virginia Golfer November / December 2014 | Page 34

SETTING HIS NEXT COURSE
There were no illusions as to what to do
next. Tallent, a two-time Academic AllAmerica, needed money. He accepted a job,
worked for Price Waterhouse (now known
as PricewaterhouseCoopers) and eventually
met his wife, Cindy.
Golf soon crept back into his life. He
reported to Charles Zink, who now is the
co-chief operating officer with the PGA
Tour. Zink had suggested there was a junior
member program at Congressional Country
Club that, with enough partner signatures,
Tallent could join. Tallent secured enough
signatures and has been a member since 1980.
His competitive juices still flowing, Tallent
tried his hand at the club championships.
Jack Vardaman, a former USGA Executive
Committee member, beat him three straight
years, which sent Tallent into a tizzy. So much
so that the next year it was played, in 1984,
Tallent withdrew from the semifinals of the
D.C. Metro Amateur when it coincided with

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ABOVE: Tallent was a standout basketball player at George Washington University.
MIDDLE: After capturing a title he craved, the 2007 VSGA Amateur Championship,
Tallent embraced his wife, Cindy, following the victory. RIGHT: The northern Virginian,
making his 27th start in a USGA championship, took possession of the Frederick L.
Dold Trophy after winning the U.S. Senior Amateur.

the club championship. He finally won it,
setting a stepping stone pattern of getting to a
final, losing but ultimately coming back to win.
Cases in point:
In 1994, he lost in the Maryland Golf
Association’s Men’s Amateur Championship
final, only to prove victorious in 2000.
In 1998, he finished runner-up to Jay
Fisher in the VSGA Amateur Championship,
but vindicated the loss by becoming the oldest
champion, at 53, in 2007.
Four years ago, he fell to eventual champion
Paul Simson in the USGA Senior Amateur
(since changed to U.S. Senior Amateur)
before dispatching Bryan Norton, 2 and 1,
in September of this year at Big Canyon
Country Club in Newport Beach, Calif.
Longtime Richmond resident Vinny
Giles, Tallent’s self-proclaimed hero, says
after all his years in the sports management
business, there were very few guys with
Tallent’s determination.
“I always said if you give me a guy with a
lot of heart and a lot of stomach, and I give
you the guy with the pretty golf swing, my
man is going to beat your man most of the
time,” says Giles, who went a record 37 years
between winning USGA titles. “Pat is the guy
with a lot of heart and a lot of stomach, and
he’s not afraid to beat people, and he’s not
afraid of being beaten. He’s a fighter and a
real competitor. I would take him as a partner
in a money game any time.”
Tallent always felt sports, and not a career
behind a desk, defined his worth. So he
entertained the idea of playing golf for
money. At 48, he retired without knowing he
was retiring. He saw World Resources Corp.,

VIRGINIA GOLFER | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014

a company he had a stake in as the chief
financial officer, take off; his wife had done
extremely well as a chief financial officer
herself and they were financially comfortable.
The decision to semi-retire, as Tallent
put it, came when his daughters had been
accepted to the prestigious Thomas Jefferson
High School for Science and Technology
in Alexandria. Their commute would have
required long times on multiple buses, so
Tallent thought he could drive them instead.
Another caveat: There was also a Gold’s Gym
along the way, he noticed, so maybe he could
get in shape for an attempt at Champions
Tour Qualifying School when he turned 50.
Cindy told him to go for it.
The dalliance ended when he twice got as
far as the final stage. His heart really wasn’t
in it, he says, because the tour would have
required extended periods away from his
family. Being a career amateur would suffice.
But those who know him thought he’d have
made a fine professional.
“Anyone who is on the verge of becoming
a professional athlete, as Pat was, whether
it’s basketball or any other sport, he
definitely had the drive, determination
and the talent,” says Mattare, who turned
professional after coaching the GW team
for four years after graduation. “If he put
the effort into it, I don’t think there is any
doubt, because it takes that extra drive. It
takes that mentality where you just hate
to lose. I think he would have been a very
successful golfer as a professional.”
Tallent notes that without hesitation
the two biggest victories of his career were
winning the VSGA Amateur and the U.S.

w w w. v s g a . o r g

TOP LEFT: GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT;