By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY —Patricia DuBois Proctor Rendleman, known as Patsy, died on Dec. 6 at 97.

She was a legend of Rowan County golf. She and her husband, Richard Rendleman, who passed away in 2002, were a dynamic duo in local golf for a long time, piling up championships at the Country Club of Salisbury. Both are in the Catawba Sports Hall of Fame, Richard for his strong playing career with the Indians, while Patsy was inducted in 2023 for her service to Catawba athletics, especially to women’s golf. She was instrumental in getting that program started in 1999.

She was born in 1927, graduated from Boyden High in 1943 and was only 20 when she graduated from Catawba College with the Class of 1947. She was a majorette, an actress and a math major. She married Richard that same year. He was a little older and had been a standout golfer at Catawba (1938-41) before serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II.

After the war, Richard was still swinging smoothly enough to qualify for the U.S. Open Championship in 1948, and he advanced to the third round of U.S. Amateur in 1951. He made 11 career holes-in-one and was a six-time Labor Day 4-Ball Champion and a five-time club champion at the Country Club of Salisbury. He also won club championships at Grandfather Golf and Country Club and Elk River.

Patsy attacked golf seriously in 1946, taking lessons at the Country Club of Salisbury from pro Don Bush. She could hit it straight off the tee, she was an outstanding putter, and she was a tough competitor. Bush could see she had some talent for the game.

In 1948, she won the Piedmont Women’s Golf Association Tournament held in Greensboro. That was a handicap tournament. She shot 85, but her handicap was 15 then, so that score was adjusted to a 70. She would get a lot more efficient with her strokes in the years ahead.

In 1950, she was the Handicap Champion at the Country Club of Salisbury. She was down a hole going to No. 16, but she took 16 and 18 to win the event, 1-up.

Par for the ladies was 76 at the Country Club of Salisbury in those days.

Rendleman was challenging 76 by 1951 when she won the club championship in Salisbury for the first time. She was 1-over on the front nine and was 2-under on the back when she closed out the championship match, 4 and 3, on the 15th hole.

Bush announced to the Post after that tournament that Patsy was “ready for bigger and better tournaments.”

She won the Country Club of Salisbury club championship for the second time in 1954. She overwhelmed her opponent in the final, 8 and 7.

In 1956, Rendleman threatened the course record for women at the Country Club of Salisbury. She shot a career-best 71, one off the course record. She won her third club championship that year.

She won the two-day 1957 Piedmont Women’s Golf Tournament held at Sedgefield, beating a stout field by shooting 79 and 81.

She added club championships in Salisbury in 1958 and 1959.

In the 1959 championship match, she shot 2-under on the front nine and closed out the match, 5 and 4, on the 14th. That was her fifth club title and gave her some bragging rights at the dinner table. Her husband had won four club titles at that point.

Rendleman added more club championships at the Country Club of Salisbury in 1960 and 1961, making it four in a row and seven in a decade.

She won again in 1962 and made it six in a row in 1963.

In 1962, she also won the Piedmont Women’s Golf Association Tournament held in Salisbury with a 79.

In all, she would win 20 club championships, including 11 in Salisbury.

She won a half-dozen club championships at Grandfather Golf and Country Club in Linville. She won there in 1974, 1975, 1980, 1983, 1987 and 1989.

In 1990, a year in which she turned 63, she had what she called the finest victory of her career in the Linville Golf Club Invitational. She shot 75 in the championship match and won on a playoff hole. The field for that tournament included top golfers from many different states.

She made two holes-in-one in her career and played six times for the Women’s Carolinas team, which included the best amateur players from North and South Carolina. They competed against the best from Virginia and West Virginia.

She was involved in the community, served with distinction on numerous boards of directors during an active life, established the First Tee program in Salisbury and served a term as president of the Women’s Carolinas Golf Association.

Catawba College annually honors both Rendlemans with golf tournaments. The Catawba women and many of their rivals play in the Patsy Rendleman Invitational at the Country Club of Salisbury every fall.