PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Susie Maxwell Berning, the three-time U.S. Women’s Open winner who was a pioneer as a mother while competing on the LPGA Tour, died Wednesday after a two-year battle with lung cancer. She was 83.
The LPGA said Berning, inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2022, died at her home in Palm Springs.
“We are saddened by the passing of one of our greats,” LPGA Tour commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan said in a statement. “Susie Maxwell Berning was not just a fantastic player and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, but also a wonderful ambassador for the LPGA and women’s sports overall.
“We will always point to her as a role model for balancing homelife and career, winning major championships while also raising a family. Susie was a strong, pioneering athlete who I have personally admired and whose legacy will continue to inspire future generations of athletes.”
Inducted into the World Gold Hall of Fame in a class that featured Tiger Woods, Berning won the U.S. Women’s Open in 1968, 1972 and 1973 and the then-major Western Open in 1965. She had 11 career LPGA Tour titles and was the 1964 rookie if the year.
Susie Maxwell was born in Pasadena, California, and her family moved to Oklahoma City when she was 13. She was introduced to golf in a most unusual way.
She was walking her colt on a bridle path when it got spooked and broke free, and the young girl chased after it down fairways and across greens at Lincoln Park Golf Course. The head pro said he would forget the incident if she taught his kids how to ride, and the pro eventually invited her to the course where Patty Berg was giving a clinic.
“I said to myself: ‘Oh, boy, she’s having a lot of fun. If that’s what golf is about, I think I want to try it,'” Berning said.
She won won three straight state high school titles and became the first female player to receive a golf scholarship to Oklahoma City University, where she played on the men’s team.
“Golf has been great to me,” Berning said in 2021 when she was elected to the Hall. “Throughout my golf career, I was able to raise a family, which was icing on the cake. That’s one reason I didn’t play as many years or as many events. But when I did play, I enjoyed it.”
Family, including her two daughters, came first.
She played only nine times in 1968 because she took time off for a honeymoon after marrying Dale Berning. She won the first of her three U.S. Women’s Open titles that year.
She played just seven tournaments in 1970 when she was pregnant with her daughter, Robin, returning to win the Women’s Open in 1972 and 1973. She played twice in 1977, the year she gave birth to a second daughter, Cindy.
“I always thought that having my own family on tour was not just a blessing, but it was an advantage,” Berning said when she was inducted. “No matter how the round went, I was mom first. My priorities were always to make sure their day went well and to spend time with them, to show and teach them that their goals are worth going after, that tough competition can happen in a loving environment.”
Berning, a pupil of Jim Flick, became a renowned teaching professional. She split time between The Reserve Club in Palm Springs and Maroon Creek Country Club in Aspen, Colorado.
“I still believe that we should swing the golf club,” Berning said in 2021. “We don’t try and hit the ball with our core. My hands are the most important thing I have in golf. And then the second most important thing is my feet. That’s the way I played. I swung the club.”