Patty Berg
Berg, circa 1942
Personal information
Full name	Patricia Jane Berg
Born	(1918-02-13)February 13, 1918 Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Died	September 10, 2006(2006-09-10) (aged 88) Fort Myers, Florida, U.S.
Sporting nationality	United States
Career
College	University of Minnesota
Turned professional	1940
Former tour(s)	LPGA Tour
Professional wins	63
Number of wins by tour
LPGA Tour	60 (4th all time)
Other	3
Best results in LPGA major championships (wins: 15)
Western Open	Won: 1941, 1943, 1948, 1951, 1955, 1957, 1958
Titleholders C'ship	Won: 1937, 1938, 1939, 1948, 1953, 1955, 1957
Women's PGA C'ship	2nd: 1956, 1959
U.S. Women's Open	Won: 1946
Achievements and awards
World Golf Hall of Fame 1951 (member page) LPGA Tour Money Winner 1954, 1955, 1957 LPGA Vare Trophy 1953, 1955, 1956 Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year 1938, 1943, 1955 Bob Jones Award 1963 Patty Berg Award 1990

Patricia Jane Berg (February 13, 1918 – September 10, 2006)^[1] was an American professional golfer. She was a founding member and the first president of the LPGA.^[2][3] Her 15 major title wins remains the all-time record for most major wins by a female golfer. She is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

In winter times she was also a speed skater.^[4]

Amateur career

Berg was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and expressed an interest in football at an early age. At one point, she played quarterback on a local team that included future Oklahoma Sooners head football coach Bud Wilkinson. At the age of 13, Berg took up golf in 1931 at the suggestion of her parents; by 1934, she began her amateur career and won the Minneapolis City Championship.^[3] The following year, Berg claimed a state amateur title.^[5] She attended the University of Minnesota where she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. She came to national attention by reaching the final of the 1935 U.S. Women's Amateur, losing to Glenna Collett-Vare in Vare's final Amateur victory. Berg won the Titleholders in 1937. In 1938, she won the U.S. Women's Amateur at Westmoreland^[6] and the Women's Western Amateur. With a victory in the 1938 Titleholders Championship and a spot on the winning Curtis Cup team as well, Berg was selected as the Associated Press Woman Athlete of the Year, the first of three times she earned the honor.^[3] In 1939, Berg won her third consecutive Titleholders, although she was unable to compete in the U.S. Women's Amateur due to an operation on her appendix.^[7]

Professional career

After winning 29 amateur titles, she turned professional in 1940.^[3] Berg's career had been interrupted by an automobile accident in December 1941; while traveling to a fund-raising event with Helen Dettweiler, a head-on accident shattered Berg's knee.

Berg being sworn into the United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve during World War II.

Subsequently, she recovered and volunteered for the United States Marine Corps and was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1942. She served in the Marine Reserves from 1942 to 1945.^[8][3]

Despite concerns that her golfing career would end, Berg returned to the game in 1943, helped by a locker room fall that broke adhesions which had developed in her leg. Upon her comeback, she won the Women's Western Open.^[7] She won the inaugural U.S. Women's Open in 1946. In 1948, she helped establish the forerunner of the LPGA, the Women's Professional Golf Association (WPGA), winning three tournaments that season and in 1949.^[7] When the LPGA was officially started in 1950, Berg was one of the 13 founding members and held a leadership position as the association's first president.^[3] Berg won a total of 57 events on the LPGA and WPGA circuit, and was runner-up in the 1957 Open at Winged Foot. She was runner-up in the 1956 and 1959 LPGA Championships.^[3] In addition, Berg won the 1953, 1957, and 1958 Women's Western Opens, the 1955 and 1957 Titleholders, both considered majors at the time. Her last victory came in 1962. She was voted the Associated Press Woman Athlete of the Year in 1942 and 1955, in addition to her 1938 award. During a four-year stretch from 1953 to 1956, Berg won the Vare Trophy three times for having the lowest scoring average on the LPGA.^[5] She was the LPGA Tour's top money winner twice, in 1954 and 1957, and her seven Titleholders wins is an all-time record.^[3] Berg won 15 women's major golf championships in her career, including the seven Titleholders victories, seven wins in the Women's Western Open, and the 1946 U.S. Women's Open championship.^[7]

In 1959, Berg became the first woman to hit a hole-in-one during a USGA competition, which happened at the U.S. Women's Open.^[9]

In 1963, Berg was voted the recipient of the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. Berg received the 1986 Old Tom Morris Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, GCSAA's highest honor. The LPGA established the Patty Berg Award in 1978. In her later years, Berg teamed-up with PGA Tour player and fellow Fort Myers, Florida resident Nolan Henke to establish the Nolan Henke/Patty Berg Junior Masters to promote the development of young players.

Berg was sponsored on the LPGA Tour her entire career by public golf patriarch Joe Jemsek, owner of the famous Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont, Illinois, site of the PGA Tour's Western Open from 1991 to 2006. Berg represented another of Jemsek's public facilities, St. Andrews Golf & Country Club in West Chicago, Illinois, on the women's circuit for over 60 years.

Berg told Chicagoland Golf magazine she taught over 16,000 clinics in her lifetime – many of which were sponsored by Chicago-based Wilson Sporting Goods and were called "The Patty Berg Hit Parade." In that interview, Berg figured she personally indoctrinated to the game of golf over a half-million new players. She was a member of Wilson's Advisory Staff for 66 years, until her death.

She announced in December 2004 that she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. She died in Fort Myers from complications of the disease 21 months later at the age of 88.

Professional wins (63)

Major championships

Wins (15)

Year	Championship	Winning score	Margin	Runner(s)-up
1937	Titleholders Championship	+3 (80-87-73=240)	3 strokes	Dorothy Kirby (a)
1938	Titleholders Championship	−5 (78-79-77-77=311)	14 strokes	Jane Cothran (a)
1939	Titleholders Championship	+19 (78-78-83-80=319)	2 strokes	Dorothy Kirby (a)
1941	Women's Western Open	7 & 6		Mrs. Burt Weil
1943	Women's Western Open	1 up		Dorothy Kirby (a)
1946	U.S. Women's Open	4 & 3		Betty Jameson
1948	Titleholders Championship	+8 (80-74-78-76=308)	1 stroke	Peggy Kirk, Babe Zaharias
1948	Women's Western Open	37 holes		Babe Zaharias
1951	Women's Western Open	2 up		Pat O'Sullivan (a)
1953	Titleholders Championship	+6 (72-74-73-75=294)	9 strokes	Betsy Rawls
1955	Titleholders Championship	+3 (76-68-74-73=291)	2 strokes	Mary Lena Faulk
1955	Women's Western Open	E (73-75-71-73=292)	2 strokes	Fay Crocker, Louise Suggs
1957	Titleholders Championship	+8 (78-71-78-69=296)	3 strokes	Anne Quast (a)
1957	Women's Western Open	−1 (72-70-75-74=291)	1 stroke	Wiffi Smith
1958	Women's Western Open	+1 (75-72-71-75=293)	4 strokes	Beverly Hanson

Team appearances

Amateur

• Curtis Cup (representing the United States): 1936 (tie, Cup retained), 1938 (winners)

See also

• List of golfers with most LPGA Tour wins
• List of golfers with most LPGA major championship wins

References

External links

• Patty Berg at the LPGA Tour official site
• Patty Berg Award
• Patty Berg at golf.about.com at the Wayback Machine (archived 2008-02-16)