Susie Maxwell Berning was more than just a successful professional golfer who turned into a successful teaching pro in the desert, Mike Kelly said.
“She was part of the fabric of The Reserve,” said Kelly, the general manager at The Reserve Club in Indian Wells. That’s where Berning, a three-time U.S. Women’s Open champion and inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2022, had been a teaching pro for more than 20 years.
Berning died in her desert home sometime early this week, Kelly said Wednesday. She was 83.
Berning began teaching at The Reserve sometime in the early 2000s, said Kelly, who had a long relationship with Berning as well as her late brother Roger.
“She was a character. She was an amazing person,” Kelly said. “Kind and caring and she was funny.”
Kelly said Berning was loved by Reserve members, to the point the club made Berning an honorary member.
More: Desert teacher Susie Berning rides three U.S. Women’s Open titles into golf Hall of Fame
“I tell you, the ceremony we had, when she was made an honorary member, was one of the most touching things I’ve seen in golf,” Kelly said.
Born in Pasadena, on July 22, 1941, she spent her teenage years in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where her family rented a house across the street from a municipal golf facility.
Berning won 11 times on the LPGA, but it was her victories in the U.S. Women’s Open in 1968, 1972 and 1973 along with a win in the 1965 Women’s Western Open that pushed her to World Golf Hall of Fame status. She is one of just six golfers to win the Women’s Open at least three times and one of just six golfers to win the national championship in back-to-back years.
“It was harder to win majors back then because some years we would only have two majors, the Western Open and the U.S. Open,” Berning told The Desert Sun in 2020 after she was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame. “Now they have five majors in a year.”
Berning was the LPGA rookie of the year in 1964 after an amateur career that included playing on the men’s golf team at Oklahoma City University. Her first Open championship came in 1968, a three-shot victory over Mickey Wright. She later won the Open in 1972 and 1973, beginning the 1972 championship with a first-round 79, still the highest opening score for any Open winner.
Berning’s induction into the Hall in St. Augustine, Fla., was delayed until 2022 because of the COVID pandemic, but she went into the Hall on the same night as Tiger Woods. Kelly said he helped Berning write her speech for the night, including a joke toward Tiger about the disparity of her earnings to Woods’ earning.
Kelly recalled an evening The Reserve hosted for Berning after her election to the Hall, where Berning was joined by Hall of Famers like Judy Rankin and Pat Bradley, recalling what life on the tour was like in the 1960s and 1970s.
“It was a great evening, and everyone was there to celebrate Susie,” he said.
Among the best
“Susie was a true trailblazer from the moment she picked up a golf club,” said USGA CEO Mike Whan, a former commissioner of the LPGA. “When I reflect on the incredibly short list of golfers – male or female – who have claimed three U.S. Open titles, alongside four major championships, it puts into perspective just how extraordinary her achievements were. Even more inspiring is the decision she made to step away from the competitive game to prioritize her family, a choice that resonates deeply with so many of us. Her legacy will forever be a source of admiration and respect.”
In 2023, after the death of fellow desert resident Marlene Hagge-Vossler, the last surviving member of the 13 original LPGA founders from 1950, Berning recalled the camaraderie of the early LPGA days.
“Judy Rankin and Marlene and I and Kathy Whitworth, we would rent houses together and stay in houses together,” Berning told The Desert Sun. “In Rochester, we probably stayed in the same house for 10 years.”
Berning continued playing in some LPGA events into the 1990s. In 1989 at the Konica San Jose Classic in California, Maxwell Berning and oldest daughter, Robin, became the first mother/daughter tandem to compete in the same LPGA Tour event. They did it again five years later at the Wegmans Rochester LPGA event.
After her playing days, Berning turned to teaching, working in Aspen, Colo., in the summer and at The Reserve in the winter. She was known at the club for her kind ways, her quick wit and her numerous cowboy hats that she wore to the club.
“Her cowboy hats, and I don’t know how many she had, were all covered with pins and buttons,” Kelly said. “Those hats were just her.”
Kelly said his family and Berning were so close that Berning would attend basketball games for his son, from time to time screaming at referees in language that couldn’t be repeated.
Kelly said Berning was more than a teaching pro at the club, holding a position almost as a professional emeritus at The Reserve. In recent years she had curtailed her summer trips to Colorado and was travelling the country to see friends or would stay in the desert. But she remained active at The Reserve.
“She was still teaching, still holding clinics, still attending social events,” Kelly said.
Berning was definitely looking forward to the upcoming season at The Reserve, Kelly added.
“She just got back from Scottsdale visiting her niece. She sounded fantastic,” Kelly said. “We just talked to her. She was supposed to come over to the house Friday.”
The club will have a celebration of life for Berning as soon as it can be organized, Kelly said.
Berning is survived by her two daughters, Robin Doctor, Rochester, N.Y., and Cindy Molchany, Walnutport, Pennsylvania.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: World Golf Hall of Famer Susie Berning, an Indian Wells teaching pro, dies at 83
