Susie Berning

Born: July 22, 1941, in Pasadena, California
Also Known As: Competed under her maiden name, Susie Maxwell, from 1964-68. After marriage, competed as Susie Maxwell Berning and then Susie Berning.

Tour Wins:
11

Major Championships:
4
• U.S. Women's Open: 1968, 1972, 1973
• Western Open: 1965

Awards and Honors:
• LPGA Rookie of the Year, 1964
• Member, Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame
• Member, National Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame

Quote, Unquote:
Susie Berning: "Golf gives us 18 chances to make good. Therefore, it encourages one to never give up."

Trivia:
• Susie Berning and her daughter Robin were the first mother-daughter pair to compete in the same LPGA tournament. It happened at the 1989 Konica San Jose Classic.

• Berning is one of six women to win the U.S. Women's Open at least three times. The others are Hollis Stacy, Annika Sorenstam, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Mickey Wright and Betsy Rawls.

Susie Berning Biography:
Her path into golf was unorthodox, but once she was on it, Susie Berning made herself into a major champion four times over.

It was 1954, and the 15-year-old Susie Maxwell was chasing her horse, which had gotten away from her, across fields. When Maxwell caught up to it, she discovered the horse had run across Lincoln Park Golf Course in Oklahoma City, causing some damage to greens.

The golf pro made her a deal: Give my children horseback riding lessons, and you won't have to pay for the damage. Maxwell and the pro struck up a friendship, and the young horsewrangler began taking golf lessons.

And that's how Susie Maxwell Berning's career in golf got started. She wound up winning three straight Oklahoma high school championships and numerous amateur tournaments.

Berning was the first woman to receive a golf scholarship to Oklahoma City University, which didn't even have a women's team - she played for the men's team.

She turned pro and joined the LPGA Tour in 1964, earning Rookie of the Year honors, and competed through 1997.

Berning won "only" 11 tournaments in her career, which doesn't stack up to the greats of women's golf. However, four of those 11 wins were majors - and three of those four were U.S. Women's Open titles.

Her first major was the 1965 Western Open, then she won her first U.S. Women's Open in 1968. Berning went back-to-back at the 1972-73 Women's Open.

So why didn't she have more overall victories? A big reason is that Berning rarely played full seasons on the LPGA Tour. In only four years of her career did she play in at least 20 tournaments. Twice in her prime years (1968, 1970) she played fewer than 10 events, following the births of her two daughters. From 1970 to 1997, she played more than 15 tournaments only seven times, and several of those seasons were in the '90s, when she was well past her prime.

After retiring from the LPGA, Berning became a highly successful teaching professional, and also competed in seniors events.