Patty Berg was born
and brought up in Minneapolis, Minnesota whose first love was American
football. She quarterbacked a local team, the 50th Street Tigers, alongside
her neighbour Bud Wilkinson, who became a legendary coach at the University
of Oklahoma. By the time she turned 13, her worried parents persuaded Patty
to try golf. Three years later she won the Minneapolis city championship.
She turned professional in 1940. There was no women's circuit, and she made
her living playing exhibition matches and giving clinics for Wilson
Sporting Goods, who nicknamed her "Dynamite". For decades,
aspiring women golfers coveted a set of Patty Berg clubs. After winning the
first of her seven Western Open (then considered a women's major) titles,
she suffered a broken knee in a car accident in 1941. She recovered in time
to volunteer for the marines in 1942, where she was commissioned a
lieutenant and her celebrity used to promote the war effort at home. In
1946, she returned to civilian life by winning the inaugural US Women's
Open. For the next few years she dominated women's golf, along with the
1946 Amateur champion, Babe Didrickson. When she was inducted into the LPGA
Hall of Fame, Berg quipped: "I'm very happy I gave up football."
The association now gives a Patty Berg award to the person who each year
makes the greatest contribution to women's golf - per Michael Carlson

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