Born Feb. 13, 1918, Minneapolis, MN
Just three years after taking up the game at the age of 13, Berg won the 1934 Minneapolis City Championship. This marked the first of 28 amateur championship victories in a seven-year period for Berg. Her victories included three Titleholders (1937-39), the 1938 U.S. Amateur, 1938 Western Amateur, 1938 and 1939 Trans-Mississippi Championship, 1938 Western Derby and five Helen Lee Doherty Championships (1936-1940). Berg also was a member of the U.S. Curtis Cup team in 1936 and 1938.
Berg turned professional in June 1940 and is the winner of 57 professional tournament titles. Her first six victories came before the formation of the Women's Professional Golf Association in 1946. In 1948, she won seven titles and became one of the Founder and Charter Members of the LPGA. Berg was the first LPGA president from 1949-1952. She was one of the four original inductees into the LPGA Hall of Fame in 1951.
Berg has won 15 major championship titles in her career -- the first of which was captured in 1937. Berg captured three of the first four Vare Trophy Awards in 1953, 1955 and 1956. Berg's hole-in-one during the 1959 U.S. Women's Open at Churchill Valley CC in Pittsburgh made her the first woman to record an ace in a USGA competition. In the summer of 1991, she recorded a hole-in-one at the age of 73.
Berg's honors and achievements are numerous, including induction into the LPGA Hall of Fame, Women's Sports Hall of Fame, PGA World Golf Hall of Fame, University of Minnesota Hall of Fame, American, Minnesota and Florida Sports Halls of Fame and one of only two women in the PGA Golf Hall of Fame. Berg is a three-time winner of the Associated Press Athlete of the Year Award (1938, 1943 and 1955), Berg was named the 1963 Bob Jones Award honoree presented by the USGA to recognize a person who emulates the sportsmanship of the award's namesake.
The National Golf Foundation has added Berg's name to its honor roll on three occasions, awarding her the Joe Graffis Award in 1975 and the Herb Graffis Award in 1981, in addition to naming her as a NGF honorary consultant in 1983. Berg also was honored with the 1975 Ben Hogan Award given annually by the Golf Writers Association of America.
The LPGA established the Patty Berg Award in 1978 to be granted to a person for outstanding contributions to women's golf. She received the Metropolitan New York Golf Writers Gold Tee Award in 1978, the year she was voted into Class A membership in the LPGA Teaching and Club Professional Division. Berg was the annual honoree of Jack Nicklaus' 1988 Memorial Tournament. Berg is one of 15 selected by PGA of America as Golf's Legendary Teachers.
SW Florida Regional Medical Center dedicated the Patty Berg Cancer Center in 1993. The 1994 McDonald's LPGA Championship was dedicated to Berg. In 1995, inducted in the University of Minnesota Women's Athletics Department Hall of Fame and the University of Minnesota named its women's athletic program the Patty Berg Foundation.
On 22 December, it was announced that the founder of the LPGA, Patty Berg was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. You can find her letter announcing the diagnose here. You can also visit the official website of the LPGA to witness her lasting legacy in the area of professional women's sport.
The below biography came from Golfweb.com
Additional Links -
Patty Berg blazed a wide trail for women golfers
The Mark Rueben Gallery - Vintage Photographs
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