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U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIPSeptember 18, 2014Pat TallentNEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA Q. We're here with Pat Tallent, and Pat, how does it feel, first of all, to win your first USGA championship in your 27th attempt? PAT TALLENT: Spectacular. I never thought I would win one. You know, when I was young and foolish, I thought I might be good enough to do something, and I played pretty well in the Mid‑Am a couple times, got to the round of 16, and Jerry Courville beat me one year, and he went on to win. But then as you get older‑‑ and I got the gold model at the Senior Open when I was 50, and that was my other one. I got two of these now. But I never really‑‑ winning the goad medal at the Senior Open is not like winning the Senior Amateur. I mean, it's a great accomplishment because there's 20 or 30 amateurs, but I was the only guy who made the cut, so that took a lot of pressure off of me. I just had to finish, don't drop dead. That was basically all I had to do. I just had to finish all 36 holes on the weekend. That's all I had to do. But this, this is nerve‑racking because we're not used to playing under conditions like this, although I'll be honest with you, you can get nervous playing in anything, but it's certainly more nervous playing in a USGA event, so it's spectacular, fantastic. I can't express my joy at having won this event. Q. Speaking of winning, I looked it up today and there was three guys that have played multiple Senior Amateurs that never won it. You were in that boat today, and you got the job done. Was that wearing on you at all overnight? PAT TALLENT: I'll tell you, I'm good friends with Paul Simpson and Chip Lutz and George Zahringer and Vinny Giles, and they've all won USGA events. I've never won one. I've always considered them to be this much above me because they have, and Vinny has won all of them. Q. Chip Lutz hasn't. PAT TALLENT: But Chip has won two Canadians and two British, and I go over there and play with him, just like I said, in the last five years, every time I beat either Paul or Chip, the other one beats me. It's like, I can't get by them both. The first couple years in the British Senior, Paul won, Chip won twice. This year Brady Exber, we had a new guy come in and win one, and George won last year. I was leading going to the back nine and didn't win. Q. Horrific weather, right? PAT TALLENT: It was. You never think you're going to win it. I mean, Christ, I shot 41 the first nine holes and doubled 10, so I'm already 7‑over par, and it takes 5‑over to make the cut. I snuck in. I shot 70 the next day and I shot even par on the back, shot 70 the next day, then got into a playoff after making two bogeys, nothing to be proud of, but one guy hit it out of bounds on 1, and I don't know, it was like 13 for 11, so the odds were good I was going to get in no matter what‑‑ as long as I didn't hit it out of bounds. Q. We believe you're also the lowest seeded guy to win it. In the '60s they didn't really seed the guys. Going back to '92 is when they seeded them, and the lowest seeded guy I could find was 58 seed. PAT TALLENT: You know what I tell people‑‑ here's what I tell my friends when they go to USGA events. I said, you shouldn't be worrying about making the cut because if that's what you're worried about you're not going to win the tournament. I really wasn't worried about it until I started to poorly, and then I started worrying about it. I'll tell you, it's just as hard trying to make the cut sometimes when you know you're on the number because I know I made a bogey on 7, and I was playing the front side last, and I said, man, I'm going to miss it, and then I birdied 8, which was‑‑ that's the hardest hole on the golf course, one of the two hardest. And then missed a birdie on 9, hit a beautiful shot in there, almost made birdie. But I was lucky, I thought 48 was going to be the number, and it turned out to be 49. So I got into the playoff. No, I didn't think I was going to win. The whole tournament came down to beating Chip Lutz the first day because him and Paul are the best two players. Now you've got some new guys, Brian Norton, he hasn't proven himself, although he got to the finals today, so he proved himself pretty well. Q. You've got Tim Jackson. PAT TALLENT: And Tim Jackson, those are two new guys, and you've got Brady Exber who's been playing great and didn't make the cut. Brady shoots 60s or 80s, he doesn't actually shoot much in the middle. But there's a group of us that have played together for quite some time, and I'm really happy that I can say that I won one of the ones that they won. Chip still hasn't won one, and he can blame me twice because I beat him this year and I beat him in 2010. Not that he would have beat Paul anyway, but I took his chance away. Q. It's early similar the way your match in 2010 and today, in 2010 Paul was 4‑up at the turn, today you were 4‑up at the turn, and your opponent made a run, and you made a run at ball and you end up on the 17th hole and he lost on the 17th hole. PAT TALLENT: That's exactly right. I'll tell you, it's a lot better to be the guy 4‑up. Q. How important was that 13th hole kind of stopping the bleeding there? That was a two‑putt, right? PAT TALLENT: 14, wasn't it? Was it 13 that I two‑putted? Q. Yeah, from the back of the green. That was a very difficult two‑putt. PAT TALLENT: That was a very difficult two‑putt. Listen, I'm a good putter. A lot of guys you'll hear them say, I'm a terrible putter, I can't putt. I don't tell anybody that. I say, I can putt. So if you give me a chance to make a five‑ or six‑footer, I usually make it. That's all I tried to do on the first one is get it down there somewhere where I can make it, and I got it about six feet, and that wasn't a bad putt. I had a putt on No.8, the same thing, broke about 10 feet and over a hump. That's just because I'm a poor ball striker and I can't get it on the right part of the green. But that tee shot, I actually hit a cut, and it landed in the first cut of the rough and bounced left, and that's why I had such a hard time because if I would have been in the fairway I wouldn't have been all the way in the back of the green. Q. How important was it to have that early lead, 2‑up after 3? PAT TALLENT: I had no pressure at all. After I made that birdie on 9, I thought this is pretty much over, and then I come out and I parred 10 and made a tremendous par on 11, and I'm thinking, that should have shrunk that hole up to about that big after I knocked that putt in for par, and yet he made it, and then on 12 it was shocking, I hit what I thought was a perfect shot, and I was trying to just land it on the front of the green, and I did, and apparently the guys who were there said it bounced and it ran all the way over to the back bunker. That was a rare bounce on that hole, and then that was a very difficult up‑and‑down, and I didn't get it up‑and‑down. And then the next hole, I made a bad shot on 14 there. I got a little too aggressive, hit it over there to the left. So we go to 15, and I'm 1‑up, and man, I hit the best shot you ever saw on that hole, didn't I? Q. Yes. It's a tough hole. PAT TALLENT: I hit that utility iron, it was 208 into the wind, and Brian gets up, and he hits 4‑iron, he said, man, I hit that good, and he came up a club short, and I hit what's my 3‑iron and got it on there, and even before he chipped, I said, I know he's going to chip that club, so I'm going to make this putt, because it was an easy putt. All I had to do was put that ball about that far on the right side and if I just get it to the hole, it's going to go in, and I did. Sometimes you make it, sometimes you miss them, but I usually hit good putts. Sometimes you misread them, sometimes the putts are too hard. I hit some putts yesterday really hard. I had 10‑footers, but man, they were breaking a foot and a half. It's hard to make those putts. Q. How long has it been since you've putted with a conventional putter? What are you going to do‑‑ PAT TALLENT: 53 years. I've been practicing. I have a belly putter that I used to use, and I cut about that much off it, and I put one of those 500‑gram tungsten weights in the end, and I'll tell you, I can putt great with it. So that's not the problem. The problem is I use my putter to‑‑ I use the long putter to line up. You guys see it. I can't get down there. My knees are not good enough. I've had knee surgery, I played basketball and I've had two knee surgeries, and I can't get down there and line that ball up, that stripe. Q. That's going to present a problem, isn't it? PAT TALLENT: So I'm going to have to get a putter that I can put behind it, but it's harder with a short putter. With a long putter, see, I can set that thing up here and I can line that stripe, and then I walk around it and the putter is so heavy that it doesn't move, and so now I'm not even worried about line anymore, I'm just worried about distance because I know it's lined up, and I have trouble with my eyes to be honest with you. Whenever the ball is lined up correctly, it looks like it's lined up a cup left. What I do is I put it behind it from behind, and then I walk around it, and I don't care where it looks like. I just say, I know it's lined up where I want it to go, and then I just concentrate on that stripe and putting that stripe right through the middle of the golf ball and hitting it on that line, and that's how I putt. Q. I can give you the names of a couple of putter heads‑‑ PAT TALLENT: That have the long thing? Q. That are real heavy but for conventional length. Your putter head weighs maybe 450 grams. PAT TALLENT: All I know is it's as big as it gets. Q. But there are a couple of them out there that are more than 600 grams. PAT TALLENT: Well, I've got that Mid Sur. You might remember when Titleist used to do the Big Sur and the Mid Sur. The Big Sur was the long one and it had a real big head, and then the Mid Sur, it's that half offset or whatever that putter is, and I've been using that. I used it before I went to the long putter, I used that putter. I just never like the belly putter because you had to take it around your body in order to stay attached, you had to take it around your body, whether it was with the long one, I can lean over the top of it, and now I'm just putting with my right hand. I just take it back and do this. I don't really do so much shoulder movement. There's two ways to putt with a long putter. There's the guys like Adam Scott, who puts his right arm all the way down and he maintains his triangle, and then the way I do it, I just hold this hand up here and I basically just putt with this hand. Now, my shoulders will move a little but not as far as my putter is move or as far as my right hand. Q. Can you putt it without anchoring it? PAT TALLENT: I can't do it. See, I don't actually anchor the putter. My wrist touches right here. Q. Could you do it where you can just hold it‑‑ PAT TALLENT: I don't think so. I'm going to go back to what I used to do, cross‑hand with a belly that's this far from my shirt with that big, heavy weight on it because that really makes it putt like a long putter when you put that heavy weight. Whoever came up with that idea, that's a really good innovation because your head‑‑ you can't get that head going like this when you have that big, heavy handle. It just wants to go around it. Q. Has there been a lot of talk among the senior guys about this? PAT TALLENT: Well, nobody was happy about it. I think the USGA is on the wrong track personally. I think that's a bad thing to do. There's so many guys that can't play because they're yippy, and taking away that putter I think is a mistake. But I don't think it's the USGA that was driving it, I think it's the R&A. They didn't like the way it looks. But I say, well, why don't you just make it a condition of competition that in USGA events, we're not going to let you use the long putter. Okay. But see, now you've got all these club guys that can't even get handicaps. You remember that time when they had those illegal drivers and the USGA said if you use an illegal driver you can't turn a score in for a handicap? Well, people are going to use them. I don't know about long putters. I've heard that there's some talk among the PGA of America about having the condition of competition that you can use the long putter. It seems to me it should have went the other way. Just like Gary McCord said, this idea that those guys play the same game we play is nonsense. They'd be hitting 6‑irons where I hit my driver today. I'm scratching it and poking it around, and those guys, they play a completely different game. It really is‑‑ it's nonsense to think that we should all play by the same rules. They should have golf balls that don't fly 330 yards. I mean, they made Congressional look like a joke. Rory McIlroy is hitting driver, 7‑iron on the 11th hole which is a par‑5 for us, and it's into the wind, uphill, and he drives it 330 to the‑‑ and he's got 200, he hits 7‑iron right beside the hole. I hit driver, 3‑wood, and I've still got about 50 yards is the way I normally play that hole. Q. Will you use all your exemptions next year, will you play the Amateur, Mid‑Am‑‑ PAT TALLENT: I didn't last time. Last time I got the Am and the Mid‑Am, and the Am was at Erin Hills, and I had something come up, and I looked at the scorecard and it said 7800 yards, and I said, I can't carry the ball more than 240 off the tee. I talked with some of my buddies out there, and they said they couldn't reach the tops of the hills. They kept driving it into the banks and they had 250 yards left on all the par‑4s, and I said, I'm glad I didn't go. I didn't play the Mid‑Am, either. I don't know what happened for that. I have no excuse. I should have gone but I didn't. Q. You're going to play the Senior Open I'm sure next year? PAT TALLENT: I'll play the Senior Open. That's my favorite tournament of all. I've been in a playoff the last two years. I birdied 18 the year before last to get in a playoff, and then I had to put about six feet on the second playoff hole to make it, and missed it, and bogeyed the next hole. Then this year I'm 3‑under with four to play at the Upper Cascades, and even par is going to play off, and damned if I didn't bogey three holes coming in, and two of them are par‑5s. I mean, no excuse. And then I lost in a playoff again, Ricky Touma and the guy from New York. Q. You were telling us that your friends in the Washington area appreciated you being exempt these years‑‑ PAT TALLENT: Well‑‑ Q. It's going to be another seven years that‑‑ PAT TALLENT: They're going to say forever. They never have to worry about me because you get 10 years, right? I hope I can make it that long, but I think it's unlikely. Q. How much of this for you is about competition as much as it is about golf from your athletic background and the match play? Do you feel like you're a strong match player? PAT TALLENT: I don't play much social golf anymore. I've gotten to the point now where I only go play in these events like the British Senior, the U.S. Senior, or I play in great places, like I played the singles up at National Golf Links and I played Fisher Island, they had a nice little three‑day. So I don't really just play my own course and play golf to be playing golf. Yes, you're right. I play it because I like to play and have competition, because otherwise I'm so old, if I don't have adrenaline‑‑ it used to be I'd have to tell myself ‑‑ I had a mantra that I would say adrenaline is my friend because you would always be so hopped up when you're playing, and now it's the other way around. If I don't have adrenaline, I can't play. I mean, I've basically gotten to the point where‑‑ and it's a fine line between having too much adrenaline and not having any, but I kind of have to have that now. I have to have some competitive spirit in order for it to make it worthwhile. Q. Will you share some of that gold medal with Jack Vardaman? PAT TALLENT: Yeah, I'm going to see him on Sunday. Jack does not have one I don't think. Q. He told me yesterday that was your impetus to get better at golf because he was constantly winning the club championship. PAT TALLENT: Jack Vardaman, 1981, maybe '82, my first club championship, I barely snuck in to the 16th. Jack beats me in the first round like 3 & 2, so I said, okay, so the next year I come back, and this time I shoot like middle of the pack, and Jack and I meet in the semifinals. I get Jack in the semifinals, and he beats me 2 & 1. So the next year I come back‑‑ at this point I'm getting a little hot headed about it. I come back the next year, and we get to the finals. I think I might have been the medalist. We get to the finals and Jack beats me on the 36th hole 1‑up. So I was so angry not because Jack beat me. Jack is the ultimate gentleman, nice guy. I'm just mad because I kept‑‑ I'm playing the tournament three times and I can't win it. So then the following year, I'll tell you how bad I wanted to win that tournament. The following year I'm playing in the club championship and they were doing it over two weekends, so I get to the finals, but the finals is the next weekend, and between that I'm playing in the DC Amateur, metro amateur, which is a real event, not a club tournament, and I make it to the semis. So on the day I'm supposed to play in the semis, I'm also supposed to play at Congressional in the finals of the club championship. I withdrew from the DC Amateur so I could go over there and win that damned club championship because I said I've played in this thing three times, I'm going to win this first, and then I'll worry about winning the DC Amateur or the Maryland Amateur. So I did. I won that year, and then I won the Maryland Am, the Virginia Am, and I've won‑‑ Q. Did you beat Jack in the final? PAT TALLENT: No, Jack got old. Q. How about Fluff? Have you ever played Fluff? PAT TALLENT: I've played with Fluff. Fluff is not good enough to play‑‑ he won the first flight this year. Q. Trevor Randolph plays out at Congressional. PAT TALLENT: Oh, yeah, Trevor is a great player. He won four times, the club championship four years in a row. Q. Qualified for the four‑ball. PAT TALLENT: Yeah, and he's‑‑ Q. And Keith Unikel, he's down there, too. PAT TALLENT: And Keith. I played the club championship this year for the first time in a few years, and I was medalist. They played the gold course, and I shot 70, and then we get into the match play, and I won two matches, then I got beat. We've got some good players. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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