Susie Maxwell Berning, LPGA pioneer and Corridor of Famer, dies at 83

Susie Maxwell Berning, a four-time main winner and 2021 World Golf Corridor of Fame inductee, died Wednesday at age 83 after a battle with lung most cancers. Berning’s LPGA resume showcased a complete of 11 titles, which included three U.S. Ladies’s Opens within the span of six years.

Berning was a trailblazer many instances over. She gained three straight Oklahoma state highschool golf championships and was the primary feminine to be provided a golf scholarship by Oklahoma Metropolis College, the place she performed on the lads’s crew. She was named LPGA Rookie of the Yr in 1964 and gained her first main, the Western Open in 1965, adopted by the U.S. Ladies’s Open in 1968, 1972 and 1973, making her one in every of solely seven feminine gamers ever to win back-to-back Opens, and one in every of solely six gamers to win three or extra Opens.

Berning was additionally revered as a working mother pioneer, competing whereas pregnant and limiting her match schedule to permit time for household life. She gained her back-to-back Opens after her daughter, Robin, was born, and averaged fewer than 13 tournaments a 12 months throughout her peak profession years. Her daughter Cindy was born in 1977.

After retiring from full-time aggressive play, Berning began instructing, splitting her time between the Reserve Membership in Palm Springs, Calif., and Maroon Creek Nation Membership in Aspen, Colo.

In 2021, Berning was inducted into the World Golf Corridor of Fame alongside Tiger Woods, Tim Finchem and Marion Hollins.

“The factor that makes her stand out is her 4 majors which she gained whereas juggling a household,” World Golf Corridor of Fame Class of 2000 inductee Beth Daniels stated in a 2021 press launch. “There are only a few girls within the historical past of golf which have been ready to try this, and it lets feminine golfers know they’ll have a household and a profession. Nancy Lopez did it. Juli Inkster did it. However earlier than them, Susie Berning did it.”

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of feminine varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everybody on the masthead. She will out-hustle them within the workplace, too, the place she’s primarily chargeable for producing each print and on-line options, and overseeing main particular tasks, similar to GOLF’s inaugural Type Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview collection, “A Spherical With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in each within the journal and in video type on GOLF.com.