PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Some 44 years after shuffling on to the stage of “The Mike Douglas Show” as a 2-year-old and entertaining Bob Hope, Jimmy Stewart and the host by hitting golf balls into a net and rolling a few putts, Tiger Woods was at PGA Tour headquarters Wednesday night for his rightful induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
“He is the rare athlete who not only exceeded the hype,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said of Woods, “he transcended it and continues to this day to have a massive influence on the game and the PGA Tour.”
[vertical-gallery id=778090281]
After winning three consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur titles and three consecutive U.S. Amateur championships, Woods, 46, turned pro in 1996. He promptly won three times on the PGA Tour in his first 10 starts.
Then he won the 1997 Masters by 12 shots, a historic victory as Woods became the first man of color to win at Augusta National Golf Club. He also, at 21, became the youngest winner of the green jacket.
Woods became the needle that moved the sport. Purses began to significantly rise, TV ratings surged upward. His presence spurred more athletic, stronger players to pick up the game. His peers followed him into the gym and the game became one featuring more power.
His influence on advertising and fashion for the sport was striking. Minorities became attracted to golf. And a generation of youngsters wanted to be like Tiger.
The list of his feats stretches out as long as one of his drives from his heyday. The record-tying 82 PGA Tour titles, the 15 major championships. A record 142 consecutive cuts made, a record 683 weeks – 13 years – atop the Official World Golf Ranking. A record 11 PGA Tour Player of the Year Awards.
[listicle id=778081998]
He’s the youngest player to complete the career Grand Slam, doing so at age 24 when he won the 2000 British Open at the Home of Golf, the Old Course at St. Andrews. En route to becoming the only player to win four consecutive professional major championships – known as the Tiger Slam – he won the 2000 U.S. Open by 15, the 2000 Open by 8, the 2000 PGA in a playoff, and the 2001 Masters by two. And he won on a broken leg at the 2008 U.S. Open and captured his fifth Masters in 2019 following spinal fusion surgery (his fifth back surgery, to go along with five surgeries on his left knee).
The list goes on and on and on.
“What can I say about Tiger that we haven’t said already?” world No. 1 Jon Rahm said. “Besides entertaining all of us for 20 years and doing unbelievable things, he inspired the generation of players that you’re seeing today.
“You have at the top of the world a lot of 20-some-year-olds and early 30-year-olds that grew up watching him and trying to copy him, and I think that’s why the level of the game is as high as it is right now.
“Aside from everything that he did, I think it’s a testament to what he was able to accomplish and how many people he was able to inspire.”
In 1954, she sold her two horses for $150 to buy a car so that she could drive to the golf course.
Perhaps Judy Rankin said it best: Anyone who has played golf competitively views winning the U.S. Open three times as an eye-popping feat, whether male or female.
“We know the difficultly of that,” said Rankin, “and there are so few people who have done it.”
A dozen players, in fact, have won three or more U.S. Opens: Mickey Wright (4), Jack Nicklaus (4), Betsy Rawls (4), Ben Hogan (4), Willie Anderson (4), Bobby Jones (4), Babe Zaharias (3), Tiger Woods (3), Annika Sorenstam (3), Hollis Stacy (3), Hale Irwin (3) and Susie Maxwell Berning (3).
As of Wednesday evening, all 12 will be members of the World Golf Hall of Fame as both Woods and Maxwell Berning will be inducted into the class of 2021. They’ll be joined by pioneering architect Marion Hollins and former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem.
Susie Maxwell Berning during the 1968 U.S. Women’s Open Championship which was held at the Moselem Springs Golf Club, Fleetwood, Pa. She was the winner of the event. Copyright Unknown/Courtesy USGA Archives.
Maxwell Berning might be the most underrated inductee in quite some time. A four-time major winner and mother of two, Maxwell Berning won four of her 11 LPGA titles, including two U.S. Opens, after giving birth to her first child in 1970.
This was decades before the LPGA began providing daycare for its members.
“I withdrew from a tournament in San Diego because I couldn’t find a babysitter,” said Maxwell Berning, who began playing the tour part-time after 1977 once eldest daughter Robin reached school age.
It was a horse that got Maxwell Berning started in golf. While out walking nine-month-old Joker around a bridal path in Oklahoma City, the colt suddenly got loose and bolted across the fairways and greens of Lincoln Park Golf Course in Oklahoma City.
Maintenance workers threatened to call the cops on 13-year-old Maxwell Berning, but ultimately the head pro said if she’d teach his two young children to ride, they’d forget the whole thing ever happened.
And so it began, Maxwell Berning picked up U.C. Ferguson’s kids every Saturday to teach them to ride. One day, Ferguson convinced Maxwell Berning to tie up her horse behind the pro shop and take a walk down the hill to where a group of golfers stood in a semi-circle having a grand old time.
“It was Patty Berg giving a clinic,” she recalled. “They were having so much fun.”
That did it. Maxwell Berning was 14 ½ when she first picked up a golf club. Ferguson, who in 2012 was inducted into the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame, would walk by on the range every once in a while and give her a five-minute tip.
In 1954, a 16-year-old Maxwell Berning sold her two horses for $150 to buy a car so that she could drive to the golf course.
A three-time Oklahoma City Women’s Amateur champ, Maxwell Berning became the first woman to earn a golf scholarship at Oklahoma City University, where she played on the men’s team.
When an opposing coach asked Abe Lemons about S. Maxwell, “Is it Steve or Sam?” Lemons said, “Sam will do.”
“I played under Sam Maxwell during my college days,” said Susie, who looking back feels a bit sorry for the young boys she played against, even though she didn’t win many matches.
Susie Maxwell Berning (Oklahoma City University Archives)
Maxwell Berning wasn’t sure about her plans after college, but after seeing Betsy Cullan and Betsy Rawls enjoy success on the LPGA, Maxwell Berning figured she should give a shot because she’d beaten both players in state amateur tournaments.
“I don’t know what you did in 1964 to turn pro,” she said. “How did you even know who to call?”
She figured it out somehow, earning $450 in her first LPGA event, the Muskogee Civitan Open, in her home state.
A petite player at 5-foot-2, Maxwell Berning took pride in making pars, winning four majors on the strength of her short game and tenacity.
“There’s something to be said for the people who you put in the category of played many very difficult courses well,” said Rankin, who will introduce her friend at the World Golf Hall of Fame ceremony on Wednesday night. “I always have a special regard for those people.”
Maxwell Berning’s first major title came at the 1965 Women’s Western Open, where she edged out Marlene Hagge at Beverly Country Club in Chicago.
Her second major title came in 1968 at the Moselem Spring Golf Club, where she defeated Mickey Wright by three strokes. Maxwell Berning said she overslept the first time she was scheduled to play with Wright and nearly missed her tee time.
When she won the 1973 USWO at the Country Club of Rochester, her husband had to wake her up at noon on Sunday. Not much seemed to rattle her.
“I was raised on a public golf course,” said Maxwell Berning, “and when I entered the Open and they said ‘Play away, please’ in their fancy blazers, it gave me a sense of formality, and for some reason, I took every shot a little more seriously. I wish I could’ve taken that attitude into every tournament I played in.”
Rankin, whose son Tuey grew up with Robin on the LPGA circuit, said the most difficult thing about raising a family on tour back then was finding reliable childcare. Players would call ahead to tournaments and hope that someone could help.
“I’m sure at the time it probably kept some people from playing professional golf,” said Rankin, “but as time went on, it’s become so great for players. … I’m not saying that we walked to the golf course in snow barefoot, but it was very different.”
Maxwell Berning gave birth to daughter Cindy seven years after Robin and during the summers, Tuesday afternoons and Wednesdays became the days they’d do something together as a family unit. The chocolate factory tour in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and the Smithsonian museums in D.C. were among their favorite stops.
Berning worked with a few First Tee junior golfers at the 15th tee during a fundraising event for the program. Golfer Susie Berning, 1968 Women’s US Open champion, revisits Moselem Springs Golf Course on Saturday, July 7, 2018 where she won her first Open title. Photo by Jeremy Drey (Photo By Jeremy Drey/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)
One of the great family travel snafus was the time a 12-year-old Robin and 5-year-old Cindy, flying alone, got on a plane to Columbus, Ohio, rather than Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Once everyone was finally together in Tulsa, Maxwell Berning joked that the next time the sisters get on the wrong plane, they should travel to London or somewhere more exciting.
“I tell you what,” said Maxwell Berning of life on the road, “they grow up fast.”
Robin took up golf at age 14 and played on the boys team in high school on the Big Island in Hawaii before starting her college career at San Jose State. The competition was so stiff there, however, that she transferred to Ohio State to play for former LPGA player Therese Hession.
In 1989, Susie and Robin became the first mother-daughter duo to play the same LPGA event at the Konica San Jose Classic.
After Robin later Monday-qualified for the Rochester Invitational, where Cindy caddied for her, she wasn’t prepared for the amount of press that followed her and her mother that week.
“That was my jumping off point to try and figure out something else to do,” said Robin.
LPGA ‘Founders’ Shirley Spork, Marlene Hagge Vossler and Susie Maxwell Berning sit off the 18th green during the third round of the Bank Of Hope Founders Cup at Wildfire Golf Club on March 17, 2018, in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
For the past 20 years, Maxwell Berning has worked as an instructor at The Reserve Club in Palm Springs, California, and about 10 members are making the cross-country trip to Ponte Vedra for the induction ceremony, along with her two daughters and two grandkids.
At first, Robin wasn’t quite sure what to make of her mother being in the same Hall of Fame class as Tiger Woods.
“In all honesty, I think it is an honor,” said Robin. “That people outside of the family and outside of our small circle of friends feel that what she’s accomplished in her life, that it validates, it stands tall enough in the eyes of others that she belongs standing next to Tiger.”
The Cat is back to hunting down golf trophies, just not on the course.
Tiger Woods is back to hunting down golf trophies, just not on the course.
The 82-time winner on the PGA Tour and 15-time major champion shared on Twitter that he’s seeking out his favorite trophies for his World Golf Hall of Fame exhibit and included a photo of his 1996 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year hardware.
It was 25 years ago that Woods stormed on the professional scene, winning two events in his first full season on Tour. Woods claimed the five-round Las Vegas Invitational at 27 under after a playoff with Davis Love III and two weeks later took home the Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic at 21 under, one stroke ahead of Payne Stewart.
I was trophy hunting trying to pick out some favorites for my Hall of Fame exhibit and found this guy. Excited to see it all come together soon. pic.twitter.com/MNPK7Q7iTt
The World Golf Hall of Fame announced in December of 2020 that the induction ceremony for the 2021 class would be postponed to March 9, 2022 during the week of the Players Championship. Joining Woods in the hall will be four-time major champion and 11-time LPGA winner Susie Maxwell Berning, former PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem and female golf pioneer Marion Hollins (posthumously), bringing the total member total to 164.
Susie Maxwell Berning, elected into the World Golf Hall of Fame, raised daughters Robin and Cindy while winning 11 times on the LPGA.
Susie Maxwell Berning once withdrew from a professional tournament in San Diego because she couldn’t find a babysitter. When she was racking up LPGA titles in the 1960s and ’70s, the tour didn’t provide childcare.
Raising daughters Robin and Cindy while winning 11 times on the pro circuit – a number that included four majors – added volumes to a career that will now be honored with a place in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Maxwell Berning, 78, was announced Wednesday as the final member of the four-person World Golf Hall of Fame class of 2021. She joins pioneering architect Marion Hollins, former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and Tiger Woods. She and Woods own the same number of U.S. Open titles: three.
“I know I won all my Opens before Tiger was born,” Maxwell Berning said when asked about that connection.
As a teen in Oklahoma, Maxwell Berning dominated the amateur circuit, winning the Oklahoma City Women’s Amateur crown from 1959-61.
Abe Lemons, the men’s golf coach at Oklahoma City University, took notice. She took her place on the men’s team there and Lemons nicknamed her “Sam.” She recalls the whole thing positively. Her teammates and opponents were kind, though sometimes surprised to see her. Once, at an event in Wichita, the opposing coach kept waiting for Sam to get out of the team van, not making the connection that it was her.
“He said, ‘Well, Mr. Lemons, where is Sam Maxwell?’ And he said, ‘Here’s Sam,’ and pointed to me,” Maxwell Berning remembered. “One of the boys I know said, she’s No. 4 on the team and I’ve got to play her? And his reaction was, wow, he was just shocked that he had to play.”
Oklahoma City, which now competes on the NAIA level, did eventually launch a women’s program in 2000. The program annually hosts a tournament in her name.
Asked to describe herself as a player, Maxwell Berning highlighted her focus on par. She was never one to make a lot of birdies.
“It’s crazy, but I think I tried harder when the putt was for par than it was for birdie,” she said. “I know that doesn’t make much sense, but par just meant something to me.”
It explains, perhaps, why her Women’s Open count went up so fast. On tough venues, determination to make par is important.
Maxwell Berning came through the LPGA long before any kind of baby boom hit. She was the Rookie of the Year in 1964 and won the Western Open, her first major, the next year. The three U.S. Women’s Open titles that followed over the next nine years are easy enough to distinguish.
Courtesy of Oklahoma City University Archives.
In 1968, when she won her first, she had only been married seven weeks. She gave birth to daughter Robin in 1970 and brought her along as a toddler to Winged Foot when she won in 1972. Robin was two and a half when her mother won again at the Country Club of Rochester the next year.
“My mind was more relaxed than some golfers who would go home and fret about the round and worry about the next day,” she said. “Motherhood probably helped me.”
As smooth as Maxwell Berning makes it sound, she was one of the only women out there doing it. Judy Rankin, a fellow Hall of Famer who now works as a golf broadcaster, was a dear friend and stood beside Maxwell Berning as maid of honor in her wedding. Rankin’s son Tuey was a year older than Robin. She could sometimes help with babysitters, but eventually, Maxwell Berning was bringing one on the road with her.
Eventually, she was competing only in the summers.
“There were very few of us that tried to play the Tour and had young children out there at the time,” she said. “And of course that’s why I didn’t play much. After 1977, I only played in the summer because then Robin was school age, and we weren’t going to yank her out of school for me to go play.”
When she and Robin competed in the 1989 Konica San Jose Classic, they became the first mother-daughter duo to play the same LPGA event. Robin played collegiately for San Jose State before transferring to Ohio State. Younger daughter Cindy never had a lesson but developed a beautiful swing regardless. Both caddied on tour eventually – sometimes for her and sometimes for others, even Patty Sheehan – and Maxwell Berning thinks they both enjoyed it.
For her, family has always enhanced the experience.
Susie Maxwell Berning won four majors as an LPGA player, and did it all while raising a family.
Susie Maxwell Berning, a four-time major winner, will take her place in the World Golf Hall of Fame. She joins a 2021 induction class that includes Tiger Woods, former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and pioneering course architect Marion Hollins.
Maxwell Berning was selected through the female competitor category. She picked up the game at the age of 15 and stayed in-state to attend Oklahoma City University on a golf scholarship (the first female to be offered one). She played on the men’s team there.
By 1964, Maxwell Berning had turned professional and began her career as the Rookie of the Year. She went on to collect 11 wins, which included four major titles: the 1965 Women’s Western Open and the U.S. Women’s Open three times in 1968, 1972 and 1973. Only three other women have won the U.S. Women’s Open three or more times, and Maxwell Berning did it while balancing family life and raising her children.
World Golf Hall of Fame photo
“Quite an honor,” said Maxwell Berning. “Just to be in the same room as Mickey Wright, Kathy Whitworth, Judy Rankin and Patty Berg – I tell you I remember when I first was on the Tour, just how nice Patty Berg was to me and I was scared to death, as it was the first time I ever played with Mickey. 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.”
Maxwell Berning’s ability to balance golf and family is one of the ways in which she set herself apart.
“I’m excited for Susie,” said Beth Daniel, World Golf Hall of Fame Class of 2000 inductee. “The thing that makes her stand out is her four Majors which she won while juggling a family. There are very few women in the history of golf that have been able to do that, and it lets female golfers know they can have a family and a career. Nancy Lopez did it. Juli Inkster did it. But before them, Susie Berning did it.”
The Class of 2021 is elected by the Hall of Fame’s Selection Committee, which discussed the merits of 10 finalists. The Selection Committee is a 20-member panel co-chaired by Hall of Fame Members Beth Daniel, Nick Price, Annika Sorenstam and Curtis Strange, and includes media representatives and leaders of the major golf organizations.
The finalists were nominated by the Hall of Fame’s Nominating Committee, which vetted every candidate that met the qualifications of the Hall of Fame’s three induction categories.
When she and Robin competed in the 1989 Konica San Jose Classic, they became the first mother-daughter duo to play the same LPGA event. Robin played collegiately for San Jose State before transferring to Ohio State. Younger daughter Cindy never had a lesson but developed a beautiful swing regardless. Both caddied on tour eventually – sometimes for her and sometimes for others, even Patty Sheehan – and Maxwell Berning thinks they both enjoyed it.
