Patty Berg

Hometown

Minneapolis

Minnesota

Year Inducted

1974

Inducted Category

Competitor

Birthdate

Feb 13,1918

Date Deceased

Sep 10,2006

Major Championships: 15

Titleholders Championship: 1937, 1938, 1939, 1948, 1953, 1955, 1957
Western Open: 1941, 1943, 1948, 1951, 1955, 1957, 1958
U.S. Women’s Open: 1946

Additional LPGA Tour Wins: 45

1941: North Carolina Open, New York Invitational
1943: All-American Open
1945: All-American Open
1946: Northern California Open, Northern California Medal Tournament, Pebble Beach Open
1947: Northern California Open, Pebble Beach Open, Northern California Medal Tournament
1948: Hardscrabble Open
1949: Tampa Open, Texas PGA Championship, Hardscrabble Open
1950: Eastern Open, Sunset Hills Open, Hardscrabble Women’s Invitational
1951: Sandhills Women’s Open, Pebble Beach Weathervane, New York Weathervane, 144 Hole Weathervane
1952: New Orleans Women’s Open, Richmond Open, New York Weathervane
1953: Jacksonville Open, New Orleans Women’s Open, Phoenix Weathervane, Reno Open, All-American Tom O’Shanter, World Championship
1954: Triangle Round Robin Invitational, World Championship, Ardmore Open
1955: St. Petersburg Open, Clock Open, World Championship, All-American Open
1956: Dallas Open, Arkansas Open
1957: Havana Open, All-American Open, World Championship
1958: American Women’s Open
1960: American Women’s Open
1962: Muskogee Civitan Open

Curtis Cup Appearances

Wins in bold

1936, 1938

Amateur Wins: 12

1934: Minneapolis City Championship
1936: Helen Lee Doherty Championship, U.S. Curtis Cup
1937: Helen Lee Doherty Championship
1938: U.S. Women’s Amateur, Western Amateur, Tans-Mississippi Championship, Western Derby, Helen Lee Doherty Championship, U.S. Curtis Cup
1939: Helen Lee Doherty Championship
1940: Helen Lee Doherty Championship

Additional Wins: 3

1944: Pro-Lady Victory National
1950: Orlando Two-Ball
1954: Orlando Two-Ball

Awards & Honors

Golf
Athlete of the Year Award, Associated Press: 1938, 1943, 1955
LPGA Founder
Vare Trophy: 1953, 1955, 1956
Leading money winner: 1954, 1955, 1957
Performance Average Award, Golf Digest: 1955-57
Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame: 1958
William D. Richardson Award: 1960
Florida Sports Halls of Fame: 1961
Bob Jones Award: 1963
Joe Graffis Award: 1975
Ben Hogan Award: 1975
Humanitarian Sports Award, United Cerebral Palsy Foundation: 1976
Gold Tee Award: 1978
PGA of America Hall of Fame: 1978
Women’s Sports Hall of Fame: 1980
International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame: 1980
Herb Graffis Award: 1981
Golf Digest-LPGA Founders Cup: 1981
Charlie Barlett Award: 1982
Old Tom Morris Award: 1986
Female Contributor to Sport Award: 1987
Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame: 1987
The Memorial Tournament Honoree: 1988
“Golfer of the Decade” (1938-47), GOLF Magazine: 1988
Patty Berg Award: 1990
All-American Collegiate Hall of Fame: 1991
PGA Distinguished Service Award: 1995
Big Ten Centennial Award: 1995
University of Minnesota Women’s Athletics Department Hall of Fame: 1995
Sisterhood Award: 1995
National Conference of Christians and Jewish Award: 1995
EWG Leadership Award: 1995
Volvo Legend Series Award: 1995
University of Minnesota Hall of Fame: 1995
Warren J. Rebholz Distinguished Service Award: 1996
Sprint Lifetime Achievement Award: 1997
National Golf Course Owners Association Award of Merit: 1998
Woman of the Year for Sports and Recreation Award, Gulfshore Life Magazine: 1999
Eagle Award, LPGA T&CP Southeast Section: 2000
Rolex/Gladys Palmer Meritorious Service Award: 2000
LPGA T&CP Hall of Fame: 2000
United States Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame: 2003
Distinguished Achievement Award, The Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation: 2005
PGA of America Golf Hall of Fame: 2007
Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame: 2007
South Florida PGA Hall of Fame: 2008

No figure in women’s golf spanned as many eras or did as much for her sport as Patty Berg.

Berg was all things to women’s golf-a superb player, a great promoter, a wonderful teacher, a charismatic personality. And her gift has been measured over a long period of time. Berg won her first professional event in 1941, in the infancy of women’s pro golf, and her last in 1962. But even after cancer surgery in 1971, Berg was still competing at the age of 62 in 1980. Hip replacement surgery later that year finally ended her competitive career.

In all, Berg won 60 professional events, including the first U.S. Women’s Open in 1946 (the only time it was played as match play), the Western Open seven times and Titleholders four times. What made these totals even more remarkable is that for the entire prime of her professional career Berg was competing while carrying a full schedule of exhibitions and clinics. Several years before her passing in 2006 she estimated that she had given more than 10,000 all over the world.

For Berg, golf was a high calling. One of her rules was: “Don’t think you really win until you live up to that high thing within you that makes you do your best, no matter what.”

“Don’t think you really win until you live up to that high thing within you that makes you do your best, no matter what.”

Berg was born February 13, 1918, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her father was a prosperous grain merchant who belonged to the Interlachen Country Club. Berg was an all-around athlete as a schoolgirl, competing in speed skating and even playing on a neighborhood football team that included future University of Oklahoma coach Bud Wilkinson. At 13, she turned her focus to golf and never stopped. After a shaky introduction to amateur golf in the Minneapolis City Championship of 1933, Berg dedicated the next year to her game and won the event in 1934. “That was my proudest victory ever,” she said. “After that, I began to dream.” In 1935, the Women’s Amateur came to Interlachen, and Berg made it to the final where she was beaten, 3 and 2, by Glenna Collett Vare. She lost the final again in 1937, but won the championship in 1938, a year in which she won 10 of the 13 amateur events she entered.

Fact

Patty Berg was the LPGA’s first president from 1950-52.

Berg turned professional in 1940, when there were only a handful of women professionals. Her income was earned doing clinics and exhibitions for Wilson Sporting Goods. For her first victory, the 1941 Women’s Western Open, she received a $100 war bond. Shortly after, Berg was in a car accident that severely injured her left knee. The leg had to be reset twice, but during 18 months away from golf, Berg rehabilitated successfully by working out in the camp of a boxer. After a two-year stint in the Marines, in which she went to cadet school and graduated a second lieutenant, Berg won the first U.S. Women’s Open in 1946, defeating Betty Jameson in Spokane, 5 and 4.

In 1948, the LPGA was established, and Berg, along with Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Betty Jameson and Louise Suggs, became the Big Four of the women’s game. Berg, who was also the association’s first president, won three titles that first year. She was the LPGA’s leading money winner in 1954, 1955 and 1957, won the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average in 1953, 1955 and 1956 and was three times voted Outstanding Woman Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press. She is the first woman to win $100,000 in career earnings. In 1963, the USGA honored her with the Bob Jones Award. Only 5’2″ with red hair and a freckled face, Berg was known as a supreme shot maker. Carol Mann called Berg “the most knowledgeable person, man or woman, of different golf shots that I’ve ever known.” According to Mickey Wright, “Patty Berg is the perfect golfer for a woman.” The LPGA honored her by establishing the Patty Berg Award in 1978 which is given to the lady golfer who has made the greatest contribution to women’s golf during the year.

Patty Berg was originally inducted through the LPGA category.