Four-time Major winner and World Golf Hall of Fame inductee, Susie Maxwell Berning has died at the age of 83.
Berning had been diagnosed with lung cancer a couple of years prior and bravely fought her corner until passing away on Wednesday, October 2 at her home in Palm Springs, California.
In a statement on the LPGA Tour website, commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan said: “We are saddened by the passing of one of our greats. 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.”
The 11-time LPGA Tour winner was one of just seven women ever to claim back-to-back US Women's Open titles when triumphing in 1972 and 1973 - having already won it in 1968 - while she also held multiple other accolades across her decorated career, including the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year in 1964 and the 1965 Western Open.
Berning ended her career as an instructor in California and Colorado, decades on from beginning her life in golf as a prodigious teenager - surname Maxwell - in Oklahoma. After winning three straight Oklahoma State High School Golf Championships, the Pasadena, California-born player was awarded the first female golf scholarship by Oklahoma City University, where she competed on the men’s team.
What made her Hall-of-Fame career even more astounding was due to the fact that Berning only averaged 13 events a season between 1968 and 1977. In 1968, she played just nine events - one of which was her US Women's Open success - after taking time off for her honeymoon with husband Dale Berning.
A couple of years before her history-making stint in the US Women's Open, Berning gave birth to daughter Robin (1970). That season, she played only seven times. And later, in 1977, she featured just twice in the same campaign in which other daughter Cindy was born.
While the list of golfers to have won consecutive US Women's Open crowns is short, at seven, Berning belongs to an elite club of four when taking into account players who have won a Major after becoming mothers. Berning, who was first to accomplish the feat, sits alongside only Juli Inkster, Nancy Lopez, and Catriona Matthew.
After retiring, the California-born player returned to her home state to teach at The Reserve Club in Palm Springs as well as Maroon Creek Country Club in Aspen, Colorado - ultimately spending even more time with her family.
She was later inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in the same class as Tiger Woods and acknowledged it was “quite an honor” to join greats such as Mickey Wright in the iconic group.
At the induction ceremony in 2022, Berning said: “Just to be in the same room as Mickey Wright, Kathy Whitworth, Judy Rankin and Patty Berg. To be honored alongside them is something I thought would never happen. I never even thought about it. I'm now part of their family, which makes me very proud.”
