Pat Tallent, a Congressional Country Club member from Vienna, Va., needed a late rally and a bit of help from his opponent, Bryan Norton, to finally capture the 60th U.S. Senior Amateur championship at Big Canyon CC in Newport Beach, Calif. The new champion, who had seen a four-hole advantage shrink to just one, got one back and held on for a dramatic 2-and-1 victory.
The winning stroke was a 30-foot birdie putt on the 17th green when Norton, from Mission Hills, Kansas, and, at 55, in his first try at this event, had it three feet for a birdie of his own, but he never got a chance at it. For Tallent, 61, it was icing on the cake after all he had been through.
He had built a 4-up lead through 10 with two winning birdies and two winning pars but then Norton got it going. He won 11, 12, halved 13, and won 14 to draw within one. Tallent won 15 with a 14-foot birdie putt after his opponent had pitched up for a conceded par. At 16, both struggled on the 545-yard par-5, Tallent making six and still getting a half when Norton missed from 3 1/2 feet. Certainly, both players will remember the putt at 17.
“This is nerve-racking because we’re not used to playing under conditions like this,” Tallent declared later. “Although, I’ll be honest with you, you can get nervous playing in anything, but it’s certainly more [so] playing in a USGA event [this was his 27th]. It’s spectacular, fantastic. I can’t express my joy at having won this event.”
Interestingly, Tallent almost played his way out of the tournament in his first round of qualifying, going seven over par in his first 10 holes. He steadied, however, to par in for 79, shot 70 in the second round and wound up in a 15-for-13 playoff. He survived to be the 60th seed — the lowest number to win the title since seeding began in 1992 — and drew friend Chip Lutz, from Reading, Pa., in the first round. He escaped with a 1-up victory and was pretty much in control the next four matches to reach the final.
“I never thought I’d win one [he was the medalist and lost in the final in 2010 and lost in the quarters last year]. 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 of times…got to the Round of 16 [in 1995 at Caves Valley GC in Owings Mills, Md.] and Jerry Courville beat me [on the 19th hole] and he went on to win.” There were some wins, of course, as he numbers the Maryland State Amateur and Virginia State Amateur among his many titles.
As for Norton, “I felt is was a matter of Pat getting up early and that put a lot of pressure on me. Then, I was able to get the momentum, but after I got it, I wasn’t able to get anything to go in that was meaningful. I had my chances.”
Courtesy of the USGA