Susie Maxwell Berning, Hall of Fame Golfer, Is Dead at 83

Susie Maxwell Berning, three times champion of the Golf Tournament of the United States Women’s Open who was known for her had on the street and her grace, died Wednesday at her home in Indian, in southern California. She was 83 years old.

His daughter Cindy Molchany confirmed death. She said her mother had lung cancer for two years.

Leaving the city of Oklahoma in the 1960s, when the professional golf of women was still a development sport (later estimated that it was only about 70 golfers on the tour at that time), Berning built a brilliant career. She shone brighter when the bets were higher. Four of his 11 victories in the LPGA Tour were in important tournaments, including the Open Western in 1965.

The other three were victories at the US Open in 1968, 1972 and 1973. Berning was one of the six to win three or more, along with Betsy Rawls, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Hollis Stacy, Annika Sorestam and Mickey Wrall. In 2021, Berning finally joined them in the hall, which honors the male and female stars of sport. It was included in the same class as Tiger Woods.

The total recognition of his achievements came slowly because his career was abbreviated, since he constantly prioritized the family.

Duration of its foreground of a decade, which, in 1968, was a steam of 13 events a year, including only seven in 1970, when she was pregnant with her daughter Robin, and two pregnant women from her weak Cindy.

Bernning had not played in approximately a few months before the first victory in the US Open, in which he beat Wright, a four -time champion, for four blows to the Moselem Springs Golf Club in Fleetwood, Pennsylvania. She had a leg on the honeymoon with her husband, Dale Berning, a real estate investor.

In his induction speech, Berning called his daughters his “fifth and sixth commander,” and added: “I always thought that my family on the tour was not just a blessing, but it was an advantage.

In those days, the relatively small pool or female professional golfers also functioned as a family. “In the course, we tried to overcome each rear mind,” he said in that speech, “but love was never lost. Outside the course, we seemed.

The Petite Berning stood out in tight and difficult courses where the torque was considered the standard, chordination of Golf Oklahoma magazine.

In his second open victory, in 1972 in Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York, he triumphed for a single blow to three runners -up, including Judy Rankin, who had been a lady of honor and was one of the few other women in the tour family.

Berning successful defended its title the following year at the Country Club of Rochester in the north of the state of New York. He started strongly in the tournament but hesitated at Green. Her husband then gave her a different putter, which he had bought for $ 5. After spending a night practicing with him in her motel room, she won the tournament for five blows on her 32 birthday.

As she expressed in her speech, “it is not bad for a girl, five two, from Oklahoma who really thought that Horses was going to be her future, not golf.”

Suzanne Maxwell was born on July 22, 1941 in Pasadena, California, the fourth of five children of Shields and Isabelle Maxwell. His father was the owner of a restaurant and then a turkey farm, in southern California, but the family moved to Oklahoma City after both the restaurant and the farm were damaged by the fire.

When he was young, his brothers Roger and Bill were making good money as caddies in the Lincoln Park golf course in Oklahoma City. Interested in income instead of sport itself, he asked about a job. They told him that Caddying was not for girls.

Instead, he dedicated himself to the two horses of the family. As Berning reported last year in the “Foring the Good of the Game” podcast, he was on a walking way in the golf course when one of them freed himself, trampling streets and vegetables.

When the gardens took her to the professional store of the course for punishment, the main professional in the course, UC Ferguson, a renowned golf instructor, forgave her and asked if she wanted to give lessons to her children.

Hey, he also offered to introduce him to golf. “I kept saying:” No, that stupid game, you pursue this little white ball, no sir, thank you, “he recalled. I would like to try that.”

Ferguson became his mentor, and starting in his second year of high school, where he did not have a team of girls until a small one began, Berning proved to be a prodigy.

She won three consecutive golf championships from Oklahoma high school. He later played the achievement because there were very few girls playing at that time.

“I shot 121 in one of these tournaments,” he said, “but look, there was no competition.”

After graduating, she became the first woman to get a golf scholarship for the University of Oklahoma City, which planned to start a women’s team. Because she was the only player who expressed interest, she was forced to play in the male team, where she was Sam’s nickname.

While reflecting the possible door of postgraduate races, he saw that two local golf rivals were already “earning a little money here and there,” he said. “I kept thinking,” I can beat them. I defeated them a couple of years before. “

Not long after, he joined the tour. The rookie honors of the year in 1964 took home.

Berning continued to compete and in the 1990s before directing his attention to teaching; She divided her time between the reserve club near Palm Springs, California, and Maroon Creek Club in Aspen, Colo.

In addition to Ms. Molchany, her other daughter, Robin Doctor, and two granddaughters survive. She and her husband divorced in 1997.

Despite his historic career, Berning obtained misery compared to the professional golfers they would follow. She retired from that fact in her induction speech, resorting to the superstar of that year at the audience and saying:

“By the way, Tiger, or my three USA.