Patty Berg to be inducted in August
Special to the Breeze, breezesports@breezenewspapers.com
PARKLAND — Patty Berg, one of the founding members of the Ladies Professional Golf Association, is the lone inductee into the South Florida PGA Section Hall of Fame for the Class of 2007.
She will be honored, posthumously, Aug. 26 in ceremonies during the South Florida PGA’s annual meeting and at the Breakers Rees Jones Course in West Palm Beach.
A native of Minnesota, Berg holds the record for major championships won at 15, more than any other LPGA member, former or present, including the U.S. Women’s Open in 1946, four years before the LPGA was founded. She already is a member of at least 10 Halls of Fame.
As a professional, she won 57 times between 1941 and 1962. Three of her majors, the Titleholders Championships in 1937, ’38 and ’39 were as an amateur. Altogether, she won seven Titleholders and seven Western Opens, both of which were considered majors at the time. Her resume of accomplishments both on and off the golf course fill more than two pages in the 2008 LPGA Media Guide.
It is for her initiatives in Southwest Florida, though, particularly her contribution to junior golf, in addition to her presence on the world golf stage for which Berg is being honored.
She was a founding member of Cypress Lake Country Club in Fort Myers, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. Glass cases at the entrance to the clubhouse are filled with trophies, awards and mementoes donated by Berg.
In 1993, the Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center dedicated the Patty Berg Cancer Center in her honor.
Equally lasting legacies at Cypress Lake are the Patty Berg Pro-Am, which was held for the 31st time in January, and the annual Nolan Henke-Patty Berg Junior Masters, which will be played at the end of July.
“She was extremely involved in junior golf,” said Robin Albright, an assistant at Cypress Lake.
Berg passed away in September 2006 at the age of 88.