It’s been widely speculated since PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was lukewarm on the facility.
Will the World Golf Hall of Fame move from its current location in St. Augustine, Florida, when the current lease runs out in 2023?
That’s been widely speculated since PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was lukewarm in his public address at The Players Championship about the facility.
Florida Times-Union columnist Gene Frenette hopes if there is a shift, it means moving trucks will simply head south down I-95.
If the WGHOF moves after a quarter-century in St. John’s County, one logical destination could be a place that deserves consideration as the golf capital of the world – Palm Beach County.
Just Jupiter alone is home to five of the world’s top-10 golfers — Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa — as well as four-time major champion Brooks Koepka. Oh, yeah, and Jupiter Island is where the 757th-ranked player in the world, Tiger Woods, has a residence.
With a brand-new interchange off Interstate 95 and a location 20 miles south of Jacksonville, one million visitors were projected to pull off and attend the Hall and IMAX Theater, the 400,000 square feet of shops anchored by a 32,000-square-foot golf shop, golf-themed restaurants and two championship courses that would host a PGA Tour Champions event and episodes of Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf.
LPGA Hall of Fame member Pat Bradley, who attended the first induction when Nick Faldo and Miller joined the exclusive membership, summed up what it meant to have a place where the greats of the game were celebrated: “It’s thrilling to know that long after I’ve left this world, people can gather and see the history of golf in this facility.”
Woods sat down with Tirico the night of his World Golf Hall of Fame induction.
A lot has been said of Tiger Woods in the last week following his induction alongside former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, three-time U.S. Women’s Open champion Susie Maxwell Berning and trailblazer Marion Hollins into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
On the night of his induction, the 15-time major champion sat down with NBC’s Mike Tirico to discuss his family and career. In the interview, which aired during Sunday’s TV coverage of the Players Championship, Woods spoke about everything from his relationship with both his mother and father to what he’s most proud of from a career that amassed a record-tying 82 PGA Tour titles and record 11 PGA Tour Player of the Year Awards.
“I think the consistency in which I played, that’s something I was very proud of,” said Woods, who spent 683 weeks – or 13 years – atop the Official World Golf Ranking. “I played at a high level for a long period of time. I won my fair share of tournaments, I lost my share of tournaments, but I was proud of the work that I put in to keep myself there and keep trying to get better.”
“But also I think something I’m the most proud of is the cut streak,” Woods added, referencing his streak of 142 consecutive cuts made, a feat that seems only possible in video games. “Because you’re gonna have plenty of bad days … bad things just happen, right? But I didn’t mess it up for like over six years, and that is something that I am truly very proud of.”
“I asked two questions only, that was it. Where was the first tee, and what was the course record? Not complicated.”
Much of Tiger Woods’ World Golf Hall of Fame induction speech sounded like it could’ve been written for an audience of two – his teenaged kids, Sam and Charlie.
Woods went “retro” as he called it, telling delightful and meaningful stories from his childhood in a 17-minute speech that came from the heart rather than the teleprompter. Woods mostly told family stories. Many were relatable. Some were extraordinary. None involved a major championship.
All helped lay the foundation of the most impactful player the game has ever known.
Too young to play as a dependent at the Navy Golf Course in Long Beach, California, a 6-year-old Woods played in Saturday tournaments at Heartwell Golf Park, a local par-3 course. Woods said he spent the week preparing at the park down the street with his dog Boom-Boom, named after Fred Couples.
“I’d hit balls in the dark, in the grass, through trees, in the sand, through the hula hoops, everything,” said Woods. “So my dog, I’d only hit two golf balls. He would go lay down next to each one of them. Well, that’s kind of how I learned to play the game of golf.”
By age 8, Woods had learned how to turn the 75 cents his mother had given him to buy a hotdog and call home into a profit. Once his father, Earl, noticed that he started coming home with extra quarters in his pocket, Tiger was told no more putting contests for quarters.
“Fine, done, I won’t putt for any more quarters,” Woods told his father.
The next week he came home with a pocketful of dollar bills.
After promising that he wouldn’t putt for money again, Woods once again came home with a wad of cash.
“He said, ‘I thought I told you never to putt for money again,’ ” recalled Tiger. “I didn’t. I went out and played skins.”
Tiger Woods, mother Kultida Woods, children Sam Alexis Woods and Charlie Axel Woods and Erica Herman pose for a photo prior to his induction at the 2022 World Golf Hall of Fame Induction at the PGA Tour Global Home on March 9, 2022 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
From age 8 to 10, Woods would sneak onto the Navy Golf Course after his father got off of work just after 4 p.m. Woods’ mom would drop him off at the entrance of the course, and he’d make his way down what they called “The Ditch,” picking up golf balls until his dad came riding up on the third hole.
“So I would sneak down the first hole to the second hole,” said Woods, “but dad taught me how to always grab a piece of foliage, cover yourself up, listen for noise. If you hear anybody coming, lay still (laughter). Part sniper.”
In the wintertime, darkness would close in fast and Earl had a rule that if someone lost a ball, it was time to drive in.
“Part of understanding how to shape shots and knowing where I hit it on the face, where I would hit it all started then,” said Woods. “So if I hit it, Dad, I pulled it left, it’s up the left side, it’s going to be here. We’d drive there, it’s there, we can continue playing. The furthest I ever made was 17 holes in the dark. Never quite got to 18.
“One of the things that drove me was his passion to play the game of golf. I was never going to be denied to play. I loved it. I had this burning desire to be able to express myself in this game of golf.”
Woods, who named his son after Charlie Sifford, the first Black member of the PGA Tour, said his father instilled in him the need to be twice as good to be given half the chance. It’s the reason why Tiger made practice so difficult it hurt.
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As he got older, junior tournaments put on by the Southern California Junior Golf Association took the eager youngster to courses that had “CC” in the title for country club, which for Woods translated to an upgraded experience with fresh greens.
But Woods said not all of those clubs welcomed him because of the color of his skin color. As he got older, those prejudices drove him even more.
“So as I was denied access into the clubhouses, that’s fine,” said Woods. “Put my shoes on here in the parking lot. I asked two questions only, that was it. Where was the first tee, and what was the course record. Not complicated.”
Tiger Woods and his mother Kultida Woods react as they pose for photos prior to his induction at the 2022 World Golf Hall of Fame Induction at the PGA Tour Global Home on March 9, 2022 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
Woods also touched on the financial hurdles his family faced, noting that when he was 14 ½ and wanting to compete on the AJGA, his family took out a second mortgage. The 46-year-old, 15-time major champion got emotional as he talked about his parents’ sacrifices and the work ethic they instilled.
When Woods turned pro, he immediately used the sponsorship money from Nike and Titleist to pay off his parents’ mortgage.
“I know that golf is an individual sport,” said Woods. “We do things on our own a lot for hours on end, but in my case, I didn’t get here alone.”
Before Woods pulled back the curtain on what shaped him into one of the world’s greatest athletes, daughter Sam introduced him and shared snippets of an intensely private family life that’s still being shaped by Earl’s “train hard, fight easy” philosophy.
With a good dose of fun, too, apparently.
“It’s been at the soccer fields and golf tournaments over the years that Charlie and I have begun to realize how famous he actually is,” said Sam. “I mean, how can a guy who still FaceTimes his friends to discuss Marvel and DC timelines and who goes to Comic-Con dressed as Batman be one of the greatest golfers that ever lived?”
A lot of people had a lot of nice things to say about Tiger.
Twenty-six years after putting to bed a world-class amateur career and embarking on a journey through professional golf that has featured 82 PGA Tour wins and 15 major championships, Tiger Woods is adding yet another line to his resume.
Wednesday night Woods was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame by his daughter, Sam, alongside former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and three-time U.S. Women’s Open champion Susie Maxwell Berning. Trailblazer Marion Hollins was also inducted posthumously.
From the Masters to the PGA Tour, his alma mater to Nick Faldo and other fellow competitors, check out how the sports world reacted to Tiger’s Hall of Fame induction.
Congratulations on your Hall of Fame induction, @TigerWoods
You've been the most prominent professional in the history of our game. In fact, what you've done and achieved possibly makes you the most prominent global sportsman since Ali.
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.”
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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.
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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.”
“We’re committed to the World Golf Hall of Fame through 2023,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said.
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Buried in the shadow of the World Hall of Fame is a time capsule containing one item of significance contributed by each golf organization supporting the World Golf Hall of Fame, and each organization’s vision for golf in 50 years. Johnny Miller, in his NBC Sports blazer, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Byron Nelson, Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead were among the dignitaries that attended the ceremony to honor the game on March 26, 1997.
On the night that Tiger Woods will receive golf’s highest honor, a question has emerged: Will the World Golf Hall of Fame still be a monument to the game and its greatest players and contributors in 2047 when it’s time to open the time capsule? There’s an Augusta National green jacket down there, for goodness sakes!
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan addressed the elephant in the room during his news conference at the Players Championship on Tuesday.
“We’re committed to the World Golf Hall of Fame through 2023,” he said, noting a date that marks the end of its 25-year lease and bond agreement with the state of Florida. “We’re looking at all of our options as we go forward. We’re fortunate to have been in St. Augustine for 25 years and are proud of the presence that we’ve created there.”
But… “The business of the Hall of Fame and the way that people consume Hall of Fames has changed, and we just want to make certain that any decision that we make about the next 25 years maximizes our ability to showcase the incredible careers and impact that every single member that’s in the Hall of Fame has had on our game,” Monahan added.
Hall of Fame golfers posing at the site of the future World Golf Hall of Fame on March 26, 1997. From left: Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller. (Photo: John Pemberton/The Florida Times-Union)
In other words, the World Golf Hall of Fame is officially on the clock.
Back when it opened in May 1998, it would’ve been unimaginable to think that the Hall could have failed. Yours truly was there for the grand opening, a lowly publications and website coordinator, but a fly on the wall to witness Hale Irwin apply lipstick to Nancy Lopez in the ‘green room’ and to hear Gene Sarazen pronounce the Hall as “beyond my wildest dreams.”
With a brand-new interchange off Interstate 95 and a location 20 miles south of Jacksonville, one million visitors were projected to pull off and attend the Hall and IMAX Theater, the 400,000 square feet of shops anchored by a 32,000-square-foot golf shop, golf-themed restaurants and two championship courses that would host a PGA Tour Champions event and episodes of Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf.
As my original boss recalled not long ago, “it was like building Las Vegas in the middle of the desert, but without the gambling, the people and the desert.”
LPGA Hall of Fame member Pat Bradley, who attended the first induction when Nick Faldo and Miller joined the exclusive membership, summed up what it meant to have a place where the greats of the game were celebrated: “It’s thrilling to know that long after I’ve left this world, people can gather and see the history of golf in this facility.”
Pat Bradley attends the 2017 World Golf Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony in New York City. (Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
But will they? While the real estate that was built around it sold out and grew into a thriving community, the other commercial aspects of the World Golf Hall of Fame languished. The PGA Tour Stop? It closed and became office space for the First Tee until those employees moved into the new PGA Tour headquarters last year. It’s now leased by Reverb Church, a non-denominational megachurch. No truth to the rumors that the property owner shouted hallelujah to have found a new tenant.
The only remaining restaurant along the Walk of Champions is the Murray Bros. Caddyshack. The Hall has closed its putting course and snack bar and the Tour is currently building a new facility for PGA Tour Entertainment in Ponte Vedra Beach next to its Global Home that should be ready in 2023, meaning more empty commercial space is coming to the Walk of Champions. Given that World Golf Foundation CEO Greg McLaughlin, who earned more than $700,000 according to the non-profit’s Form 990 in 2018, is working out of the Global Home and not at the Hall of Fame that he runs, the writing is on the wall that the Hall, which suffers from low attendance, will be next to depart.
The Slammer & Squire at World Golf Village and the World Golf Hall of Fame in Florida. (Courtesy of the World Golf Village)
Monahan, to his credit, told me that figuring out the future of the Hall is a priority. Golf deserves to have its own version of Cooperstown, a shrine to celebrate the global game under one roof. It was an ambitious project that was supposed to be supported by all of golf’s participating organizations, but the bill ultimately was footed by the PGA Tour. (According to the World Golf Foundation’s Form 990, the induction ceremony costs nearly $1 million to put on, but some of that expense will be offset by charging a “donation” of $5,000 per ticket to attend Tiger’s ceremony on March 9.)
If it is to continue as a going concern, it should be considered a marketing expense. During the same news conference, Monahan noted that the Tour’s reserves total $221 million. Time to pump some of that money into breathing new life into the exhibits, which were cutting edge when I worked there but no longer are cutting it. (And, please, do us all a favor and make a new commercial!) Those exhibits should be interactive and heavy on Jack, Arnie, Gary and Nancy but even more so Tiger, Phil and Annika. It’s also time for the U.S. Golf Association and PGA of America, which have their own respective museums, and others who profit off the PGA Tour stars, to pony up too. Either that, or the Hall needs a white knight such as a Herb Kohler or Mike Keiser type that loves the game.
Maybe the uncertain future of the Hall at the World Golf Village shouldn’t be that surprising. After all, the previous version of the Hall closed at Pinehurst, North Carolina, where the only attendance spike was on rainy days. Here’s hoping history won’t repeat itself. There has been talk about a virtual Hall of Fame, and while that may make good business sense – a lot cheaper than the current lease – the men and women who have earned plaques deserve better than that. The Hall needs a reboot, but another home? The clock is ticking.
“Every player out here on Tour owes him a huge debt of gratitude.”
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Growing up amid the prairies of Kansas, Gary Woodland was a standout on the baseball field and basketball court.
Held his own on the golf course, too. But back in the mid-1990s, while his proud community of Topeka knew what he could do with a baseball and a basketball, very few had any idea what he could do with a golf ball.
“Golf wasn’t cool. And I played by myself,” Woodland said.
Then Tiger Woods exploded off the TV screen in the 1997 Masters.
“I was going to be 13 and it was the first golf tournament I ever paid attention to,” said Woodland, who has gone on to win four PGA Tour titles, including the 2019 U.S. Open. “I got the VHS tape; I’ve watched it 400 million times.
“It was a turning point for me. Tiger made the game cool. He was athletic, he was exciting, he could send the golf ball a mile. It’s not like I had to hide playing golf. But all of a sudden, I didn’t have to associate with just being a basketball player or a baseball player. I could associate with being a golfer. And that was cool.
“And Tiger did that.”
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He did so much more. The public got a glimpse of Woods for the first time when as a 2-year-old the mixed-race kid from a middle-class background waddled onto the stage of The Mike Douglas Show and wowed Bob Hope, Jimmy Stewart and the host by hitting golf balls into a net.
Less than 20 years later he was must-watch TV and became the needle that moved all things golf. Purses significantly rose – Woods led the Tour’s money list in 1997 with just over $2 million; the winner of this week’s Players earns $3.6 million. TV ratings spiked. Madison Avenue perked up. Wardrobes changed – think the swoosh. Power became the game’s calling. Minorities began to think they could have a place in the game.
And youngsters across the globe have tried to follow his lead ever since while his peers have followed him into the gym.
Woods didn’t just leave an impression on the old stately game, he changed it. Testament to his brilliance inside and outside the gallery ropes takes place Wednesday night when he steps on to the stage at PGA Tour headquarters for his induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame, where he’ll be introduced by his 14-year-old daughter, Sam.
“He’s done everything for the game,” said six-time Tour winner and 2014 FedEx Cup champion Billy Horschel. “There isn’t one aspect of the game that he hasn’t had his hand in in changing.”
Woods’ considerable feats on courses the world over will be well documented on his plaque, although there won’t be enough space. There are the record-tying 82 PGA Tour titles, 15 major championships, a record 142 consecutive cuts made, a record 683 weeks – 13 years – atop the official world rankings, a record 11 PGA Tour Player of the Year Awards.
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He won the 2000 U.S. Open by 15, the historic 1997 Masters by 12, the 2000 Open Championship by 8, the 2006 PGA Championship by 5. When he won the 2000 Open on the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, the Home of Golf, he became, at 24, the youngest to complete the career Grand Slam.
Less than a year later, he won the 2001 Masters, becoming the only player to ever win four consecutive professional majors. It’s better known as the Tiger Slam.
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).
And Woods will tell you the best times he’s ever had on the golf course since turning pro came the past two years when he played with his 13-year-old son, Charlie, in the PNC Championship.
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Off the course, his heralded handiwork can be seen in the TGR Learning Lab on 1 Tiger Woods Way in Anaheim, California, a brick-and-mortar behemoth of educational opportunity created by his foundation, which has raised millions over the years for numerous charities. Opened in 2006, the Learning Lab is the backbone of his goal to provide kids a safe place to learn, explore and grow.
Talk to those kids and they’ll give you different reasons why he’s a Hall of Famer.
As time has marched on, and the injuries have taken their toll, a different Woods has emerged as he’s become a statesman of the game. The once relentlessly intense player who kept to himself and kept his thoughts close to the vest for most of his career has expanded his audience and been freer with his advice and guidance.
He has taken to many youngsters in the game, including Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler. The players were excited and proud to play for him when he was a playing captain for the USA’s victorious 2019 win in the Presidents Cup.
Woods is still recovering from a near-fatal, one-car accident in February 2021 in the Los Angeles area. If he’s to return to the PGA Tour, he will do so on a limited basis. We were lucky to see Woods at his zenith. We’d be lucky to see him there again.
His peers sure hope so.
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“He came out dominating. It was just a different ballgame. And what he’s done for the Tour is undeniable,” 2012 FedEx Cup champion and nine-time Tour winner Brandt Snedeker said. “The Tour wouldn’t be in the position it’s in without him.
“He’s been an unbelievable icon of sport, and to have him in golf has been extremely important for the sport’s growth. Every player out here on Tour owes him a huge debt of gratitude.”
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.”
On Wednesday, Woods will team up with his other child, daughter Sam.
Woods chose his daughter to introduce him for his induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame, which will be held beginning at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday at PGA Tour headquarters within the shadows of TPC Sawgrass, home to this week’s Players Championship, the Tour’s flagship event.
Also being inducted into the Hall of Fame is former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, who will be introduced by Hall of Fame member Davis Love III, and three-time U.S. Women’s Open champion Susie Maxwell Berning, who will be introduced by Hall of Fame member Judy Rankin.
Trailblazer Marion Hollins will also be inducted posthumously.
Sam, 14, was born the day after Woods tied for second in the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania. She was at Southern Hills in Oklahoma later in the year when Woods won the 2007 PGA Championship.
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Woods, who has won a record-tying 82 PGA Tour titles and 15 major championships, played alongside Charlie, 13, at the PNC Championship for the second time. This year, it was the first time Woods played in a tournament since his near-fatal car accident in February in the Los Angeles area.
Woods is still recovering from injuries sustained in the crash.
Feherty will serve as emcee of the World Golf Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony scheduled for March 9.
The World Golf Hall of Fame announced that NBC and Golf Channel analyst and funnyman David Feherty will serve as host of the 2022 induction ceremony, which will air live on Golf Channel at 7 p.m. ET on March 9.
The ceremony on the eve of the Players Championship at the PGA Tour’s ‘Global Home’ headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, will honor the Hall’s four newest members who were chosen in 2020: Susie Maxwell Berning, former PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem, the late Marion Hollins and Tiger Woods. The ceremony was postponed for one year due to the global pandemic.
“As someone who has been around golf practically my entire life, I know firsthand that the highest possible honor in our sport is the immortality that is reserved for members of the World Golf Hall of Fame,” said Feherty, the former host of “Feherty Live” and beloved for his irreverent sense of humor. “I’m thrilled to contribute in some small way to what will be a historic evening as the Hall of Fame honors its new inductees.”
The addition of these four individuals will bring the total number of Hall of Fame members to 164.
The addition of four new members, including Tiger Woods, will bring the total number of Hall of Fame members to 164. (Bob Self/Florida Times-Union)
As part of the ceremony, the Hall of Fame also will display its new induction trophy for the first time. Designed by Tiffany Co., the arc of the trophy handle embodies the golf swing and represents the global nature of the sport.
In addition to honoring the 2022 induction class, the ceremony will recognize Peter Ueberroth and the late Dick Ferris as recipients of the inaugural lifetime achievement to honor their contributions to the sport. Renee Powell also will be honored for her spirit in advancing diversity in golf as the first recipient of the Charlie Sifford Award.
The ceremony will take place in Northeast Florida for the first time since 2013, with most recent ceremonies held in California (2019), New York (2017) and Scotland (2015).
