PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — 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. .