Susie Maxwell Berning - Part 1 (The Early Years and the 1965 Western Open)

World Golf Hall of Fame member Susie Maxwell Berning begins her story as a young girl raising horses in Oklahoma City. When her young colt Joker got loose and ran through the neighboring golf course, her life changed forever. Smitten by golf after seeing a Patty Berg clinic at Lincoln Park Golf Course, she sold her horses and bought a car so she could drive to the golf course. Susie played on the men's golf team at Oklahoma City University "chaperoned" by the legendary basketball coach Abe Lemons. Listen in as she recounts her initial experiences on tour including a major win at Beverly CC and a Lacoste shirt-burning party at the 1967 Women's U.S. Open. Susie Maxwell Berning shares the early years and wins, "FORE the Good of the Game."

Transcript

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Welcome to another edition of FORE the Good of the Game and Bruce Devlin. Our guest today is part of the most recent class of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Bruce Devlin 0:25

What the heck? I'll tell you what. Five Hall of Fames this lady has been inducted into, and it's no wonder, because she's a four-time major champion. Won 11 times on the LPGA tour, and what a thrill it is to have. And a lot of people, when she was a young girl, called her little, but I think she's pretty big. Susie Berning, thanks for joining us today. We look forward to talking about your wonderful career.

Susie Maxwell Berning 0:58

Well, thank you for having me. I appreciate it very much.

Mike Gonzalez 1:01

Great to have you, Susie Maxwell Berning. And uh, as we've talked about before, we're here to tell your story. And so uh that requires us to go back to the very beginning. We know you were born in in California, but uh you ended up in Oklahoma, didn't you?

Susie Maxwell Berning 1:16

Yeah, my father actually uh, oh heavens, when I was first born, he had a restaurant in Azusa, California, and it burned down with a fire. So then he went out to Banning, California, and he bought, to my understanding, 80,000 turkeys. And he had a contract with the armed services during the war to supply the turkeys meat. And anyway, a my understanding, and I was I was about four here there, and a forest fire came through because we were up in the mountains outside of Banning. Anyway, they got about half of his turkeys were roasted in the fire. And he said he's getting the hell out of the state, and I don't think he actually knew where he was going to drive to, but apparently he just stopped in Oklahoma and uh actually rented a house right near the Oklahoma City Zoo, and no longer did we move in there, and the leopard escaped from the zoo. We were, you know, my brothers, my three brothers and I, I mean, we were I was a tom boy, tom girl, and we were outside all the time. So boy, we thought we were gonna go find the leopard.

Mike Gonzalez 2:24

Yeah, I bet. Yeah. You mentioned your three brothers, that being Jerry, Bill, and Roger. And I remember you acknowledging Roger, who was there at your Hall of Fame ceremony.

Susie Maxwell Berning 2:35

Yes, Roger, my youngest brother. Uh he's been in golf all his life. He started out as a actually a salesman for Dunlap. But that lasted for about a year, and then he became an assistant pro and he worked under Eddie Marons, and then he became director of golf for Marriott, and he ran 19 courses at one time for Marriott. And then I think he was probably 50 and he retired from there and started a uh he doesn't like me to call it a store, but it was called a celebration of golf, and it was a world-known golf uh store in Scottsdale, and he had one in Vegas too.

Mike Gonzalez 3:09

Yeah, I remember it. Yeah. So you probably didn't catch that leopard, I would guess.

Susie Maxwell Berning 3:13

No, we didn't. No, no. Uh-uh, no. I think they thank goodness. Yeah, they they ended up putting too much poison in a meat to catch him, and he he he uh died.

Mike Gonzalez 3:24

Uh, it's too bad. Uh well you moved to Oklahoma City when you were 13. Understand your your dad uh took care of a couple of horses as well that you sort of fell in love with.

Susie Maxwell Berning 3:35

Yeah, you know, I don't know why Dad he always rented, if if I remember right, but and he rented places that had a barn and a pasture. And you know, at the time we had no animals except dogs. And so one of his co-workers had two horses, one was just a brand new coke, and uh asked my dad, since he had this barn and pasture, if he would take care of his horses while he went to Oregon and worked for the summer. And um, so I fell in love. I was about 13, 14, and I took care of the horses. I fed them and fell in love with them and uh actually through love trained the colt. And um, you know, because she was just about oh, the colt was maybe a year old or so. And uh, you know, I got on it. My father's watching me. He says, Do you're gonna get bucked off? And I said, No. No, you know, uh, put the saddle on, put the blanket on first, of course, the saddle, and the colt never bucked or anything. I just got on her and she didn't know what to do, I think, but anyway, startled. But uh so that was kind of the start of my in love with horses, and it went from there.

Mike Gonzalez 4:45

Um to their names were uh Ribbon and Joker. Ribbon and Joker.

Susie Maxwell Berning 4:52

Yeah. Ribbon was the mom and Joker was the cult. And I don't know how I came up with the name Joker uh Joker, but the the mare, her name was uh Ribbon from she was uh she did some quarter horse stuff in the rodeo. I tried once. And uh I did the barrel racing okay. And this is before I was introduced to golf. Uh just a little country rodeo in Britain, Oklahoma. And I did the barrel racing okay, didn't fall off or anything. And then they had the flag racing, and I had not practiced flag racing. That's just where you ran your horse out to one barrel and you pick up a flag and whoever gives you a big yeah. Well, I pulled the horse too quickly on the reins, and the horse reared up and I fell off. So it needs to say I never had two saddles. So when I took my friend's riding, I had to go bareback.

Mike Gonzalez 5:47

Well, those horses, or at least one of them, I think Joker probably enters into the story because uh as story goes, he got loose one time, and what happened?

Susie Maxwell Berning 5:56

Well, okay, this was the summertime. I would I think I was 13 and a half or so in the summer. And um, I had had done other sports in school and stuff, and so anyway, two of my brothers, my two young, my Roger, my youngest, and Bill my next, just a little bit older than me, they were there's a golf course nearby, and they were cadding at this golf course. And my father kept saying, you know, we can't keep the horses because we can't afford if they're feeding the winter. And so um I know that uh Roger and Bill were bringing home money by caddying, so I went over to this golf course. And I didn't know who I was talking to, frankly. I didn't know his title at the time, uh, and asked him if I could caddy. My two brothers were caddies, and I mentioned their names, of course. And he says, Girls don't caddy. So I kind of went home with my head down, and I tell you what, it wasn't maybe two weeks later, then there was a bridal path around this public golf course, okay? The Shriners had built this bridal path because they had beautiful stables and they'd use it to exercise their horses. Anyway, um going for a ride and took the colt. I was riding a mare, a ribbon and a colt joker I had on a lead rope. Oh, I don't know, so I wasn't paying attention or something. Anyway, we're on the bridle path and it surrounded the golf course, okay? And um I wasn't paying attention, and all of a sudden, Joker's running free. And I'm now chasing Joker. Um and I, you know, I had no idea why this grass was cut so low and you know, it kind of went between the trees and stuff. But I'm chasing the colt, you know what I'm about to, and then um find out later that uh I'd also kind of chased the colt right over a green too, part of a green. And anyway, all the I mean, probably five minutes after the colt got loosed, uh word got out, I guess, and all of a sudden I'm being chased by all these uh vehicles. You know, didn't know what they were at the time, but they were Cushman, you know, workers' vehicles. And um finally the colt she ran into a creek and she'd never been in a water before, and she just came to a dead halt. And so I was able to get her. And these people on the in the Cushman vehicles, well, they yelled at me and said that they're taking me back to and follow them, and they're calling the police, and uh I'm gonna call fall my call my father and blah blah blah. And so anyway, I was taken back to I find out later it's called the Pro Shop Clubhouse, yeah, at a public facility. And here comes this man out, and I'm crying. And he looks at me, he says, I've seen you before. I said, Yeah, you're the one that told me that I couldn't caddy. And I think he felt sorry for me. And he says, Well, is that why you ran your horses over my golf course? And I says, I didn't even know what it was. You know, I saw these people hitting this white thing and then chasing after again. But so anyway, um, we started talking and he made me feel a little bit more at ease, and he wasn't gonna call the police and stuff like that. And uh found out that he and his family lived real close to where we lived, and he had two young children, and so we kind of made an agreement that I would teach the two young children, his two young children, how to ride a horse, and he'd forget that this ever happened. And so the rest of that summer I would uh I think once a week, I'd go either go pick them up or they'd come over to my place and I taught them how to ride. And we became friends, and actually my family became friends with the the children's family. UC turned out to be UC Ferguson, who was the head pro Lincoln Park. Um, and um we became quite good friends over the summer, and then of course I went back to high school and didn't touch a club until the next summer, and he found, you know, he found out I played all kinds of sports. And so anyway, the next summer, I guess this is when I was about 14, he calls me up and he says there's something he wants me to see. Uh and I said, Well, can I ride my horse and tie it up behind the pro shop? He said, Yeah. So I did and he sold just just bring one of them, he said. I said, Yeah. And uh anyway, so I do that, and I'm in jeans, you know, I'm cowboo boo's probably, you know, who knows. And he takes me down this hill. And there's laughter, and there's people kind of in a horseshoe shape, I thought. Well, it turns out it's Patty Berg giving a golf clinic. And you know, I mean, she's laughing up a storm and she's taking her hat and switching it around, you know, saying if you want to get a slice, you got a hat going this way. Oh, the hat going the other way. She she just was funnier's heck. And I said, That's what golf is? Huh? She's having a lot of fun. I said, I'd like to try that. So I started getting free lessons from UC, and you know, he'd only spend five, ten minutes with me, and then leave me alone, and then come back an hour later and see how I'm doing, and I had to hit balls. There was no driving range at that time. So there was a section down below the pro shop where I literally had to hit balls um from a corner of the fairway or rough, and I had to get over a little creek. Well, half my balls ended up in the creek, and I went in the creek to get them, of course. Yeah. So anyway, that was my start in golf. And I I just got addicted to it, and uh by the time I really got addicted, I was 16 and I'd sold my two horses for a car so I could drive to the golf course.

Mike Gonzalez 12:05

Hmm. What a story.

Susie Maxwell Berning 12:07

So that's kind of how it started.

Mike Gonzalez 12:09

Patty Berg was probably working for Wilson at the time.

Susie Maxwell Berning 12:12

She was, and she was given clinics, you know, for $25 a clinic she got. In fact, my first contract was with Wilson Sporting Goods Store, Wilson Sporting Goods, and I had to go down to Naples, and Patty, I forgot who else was with me, but uh another couple players had signed with Wilson, and Patty would teach us how to give clinics.

Mike Gonzalez 12:35

Yeah, it sounds like uh she ran uh uh golf clinic boot camp down there for you.

Susie Maxwell Berning 12:40

She did, yeah. Um but can you imagine she did that for $25. Now, of course they paid her expenses, I'm sure, but well, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 12:50

Well, it's it's claimed that she gave over 16,000 clinics in her career, which is sort of astounding to think about that number.

Susie Maxwell Berning 12:58

Yeah, and and and she used to, and you know, when when I first joined the tour, we did what we called a swing parade. And uh it was Wednesday afternoons, and Patty Brigh would be the MC for this swing parade, and she would assign each player or some players okay, you got to hit a three-arn today at this clinic, you got to hit a two-arn, you got to hit a five-iron, you gotta hit a wig button. And so Patty kind of and being a rookie, she gave me the two-arn.

Mike Gonzalez 13:32

Uh that's interesting. You mentioned that uh uh as uh as a young lady, you played a few other sports. Tell us a little bit about the other sports you played uh before you got into golf.

Susie Maxwell Berning 13:43

Well, I I you know I played tennis. I got to the I think it was the quarterfinals state high school in tennis. Uh I played softball with my brothers and played on the softball team in high school. Fortunately, our high school in Oklahoma, Northeast High School, you had to take a fifth-hour sport, which I think is wonderful. Now, badminton would count, and some some would just uh I think uh do gymnastics, you know, in the gym or just exercise, whatever, but you had to do something. And I picked tennis after in the spring it was tennis, and I think in the fall it was softball. And then they didn't offer golf. Golf wasn't offered. And then when I got addicted to golf at my end of my sophomore year, um I said, hey, I'm not doing tennis, I'm not doing uh softball, I'm doing golf. And of course they let me do that.

Mike Gonzalez 14:40

Yeah. Did they have teams uh then when you entered high school? Did they already have uh men's and women's golf teams?

Susie Maxwell Berning 14:46

Uh, you know, they had boys, they had the boys, men's, and you know uh I've been told I won three state high school champions, but I don't recall. Uh we didn't have, I know uh my second maybe my first, there was only two girls. And then I conned a couple of my other friends who did sports with me to be on my team because to go to the state you had to have a team.

Mike Gonzalez 15:16

Yeah, sure.

Susie Maxwell Berning 15:17

So I conned and I know I shot 121 at one of these, one of the first ones I ever played in. But see, there was no competition, so there really wasn't girls golf.

Mike Gonzalez 15:28

Yeah.

Susie Maxwell Berning 15:29

And I you know it started picking up after I got involved in it.

Mike Gonzalez 15:33

But and this was way before Title IX.

Susie Maxwell Berning 15:36

Oh yeah.

Bruce Devlin 15:37

Yeah, a lot of people.

Mike Gonzalez 15:38

So the world was the world was a little different for for women athletes. Um well you did play in the 1963 Oklahoma Women's Amateur.

Susie Maxwell Berning 15:47

I did.

Mike Gonzalez 15:48

Oh, which which you won, by the way. Congratulations. Yeah, but you you know, you at some point your game must have really started developing. Was that in high school where you you you start feeling like I'm getting pretty good at this?

Susie Maxwell Berning 16:01

Well, you know, from Oklahoma, there was a Beth Stone and um Betsy Cullen both were on the tour. But and both from Oklahoma. Betsy Cullen had just graduated from OU, I think the year before or something. And I had beat her in a state tournament, I recall. As she when she was an amateur. But um I think what really uh helped my game develop was playing on the men's golf team at OCU.

Mike Gonzalez 16:33

Gotcha.

Susie Maxwell Berning 16:34

Um I you know, I'm not gonna say I tried to hit it hard, but I think I increased my distance by maybe swinging faster. You know, um, and I think that really helped me develop my golf game and was able to allow me to maybe make it on the tour.

Mike Gonzalez 16:54

We've talked to a few other ladies who did compete again pre-Title IX in college on the men's team, and uh they all say it helped their game. Uh, you know, it it added to the pressure, but it also forced them to to like as you say, maybe swing a little harder than you might have been comfortable with just to try to keep it up with the boys.

Susie Maxwell Berning 17:13

Oh yeah, yeah, you know, and and and he yeah he always wanted to beat the boys. I mean, even he was even if the guy was your best friend or he he wasn't, even if you didn't know him, you know. There took um, I guess a certain pride in beating the guys, and and of course Coach Abe Lemmas was our golf chaperone, he wasn't really a coach as such. But he and he was a famous basketball coach from Oklahoma.

Mike Gonzalez 17:38

Absolutely, yeah.

Susie Maxwell Berning 17:39

Yeah, and he entered me in tournaments as S. Maxwell. And we're up in Wichita. We're up in Wichita.

Bruce Devlin 17:47

And what did the S stand for?

Susie Maxwell Berning 17:48

Well, we're in Wichita. We take the school van up to Wichita from Oklahoma, and I we get out of the van and the coach from Wichita, Coach Lemons, you got here. You what's what's S stand for? And Coach Lemons said Sam will do, and so he entered me into Sam. So the boys were a little bit shocked when they Sam showed up.

Bruce Devlin 18:14

Sam showed up as a female, huh? Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 18:18

Well, you were the first woman to receive a golf scholarship at uh Oklahoma City University, and uh as you said, uh Abe Lemons was really much more famous as a basketball coach. Interesting you used the term chaproom because that's sort of my recollection back in high school days, particularly the little small towns around us. Most of the coaches were there because they earned a little stipend for the extra hours after school. They didn't know much about the golf game, did they?

Susie Maxwell Berning 18:43

That's very true. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 18:45

So where'd you get your coaching then during your during your uh college days? Was that still coming for Mr. Ferguson?

Susie Maxwell Berning 18:51

Yes, yes, it was, yeah. And um I got a I got a scholarship uh from OCU I think they paid, you know, they gave me free books and tuition. And then there was a group of businessmen in Oklahoma City and and their organization was called Gough Incorporated. And they actually gave four scholarships a year to younger soon-to-be freshmen in college. And they gave us, I I think if I recall right, we got five hundred dollars a semester. Supposed to be just, you know, help us with our books or tuition or whatever. And I stayed at home, so I literally I made money going to college.

Mike Gonzalez 19:40

Not many people can say that.

Susie Maxwell Berning 19:42

No, I know it. So uh yeah, because I lived at home and uh it was great, and then my brother, actually Roger, received a scholarship, he's three years younger than me. He received a scholarship when he was college age and he went to O OSU. Now he didn't get his scholarship from Gough Incorporated uh for his playing ability, but they saw that he was a merchandiser and uh and uh you know gonna pursue the the golf world somewhere somehow. So anyway, it was a great organization that helped a lot of us go through college and stuff.

Mike Gonzalez 20:20

Yeah. So when did you think about uh playing professionally? When did that enter your mind?

Susie Maxwell Berning 20:27

Well, after you know, I I guess when I became a senior in college, I'm thinking, what am I gonna do? And uh I at that time, like I said, Bess Stone and Bessie Collin were on tour. You know, I could see where they were winning a little bit of money here and there, and I kept telling myself, we have you know, I can beat those. I beat them then. I beat them a couple years before. And if they can make money out there, maybe I can, so and I do not recall how you announced you were gonna turn professional, but uh uh after college, uh the gentleman Bill Bill Watherspoon, who is the head pro at Southern Hills, asked me to come up and uh play a few rounds with him and wanted me to you know pla play a private club and get used to uh you know different clubs instead of just hanging around in Lincoln Park. Nothing wrong with Lincoln Park, of course. But so he he and some Southern Hills members um gave me some money I can't remember how much, but and if they said if you want to turn pro, this'll get you started. And so I called, I guess I don't know who I called, maybe they called for me. And the next thing I know I'm entering uh my first tournament, which was in Muskogee, Oklahoma. And that was 1964.

Bruce Devlin 21:50

Was there any school they had to go to back then to qualify to get on the tour?

Susie Maxwell Berning 21:54

No, you know, Bruce, um if I'm correct, I think the stipulation. Was you had to finish in the top two-thirds, three out of four of your events. And if you didn't make it, you had to take four weeks off and try it again.

Bruce Devlin 22:13

Ah, okay. That's interesting.

Susie Maxwell Berning 22:16

I you know, I I made it my first well, I finished sixth my first tournament. I believe I was sixth and then I won four hundred and forty dollars my first tournament. I thought, wow, is this gonna be good?

Mike Gonzalez 22:30

Yeah. I'm rich.

Susie Maxwell Berning 22:31

Yeah, I'm rich. And then the following year I was very fortunate I I go back to Muscogee and I won that, and that was my first win.

Mike Gonzalez 22:38

Yeah, well, let's talk about that. Uh the professional record for Susie Maxwell Burning turning pro at age 23 in 1964. She had 13 professional wins, including L 11 LPGA tour victories, as Bruce had said at the top. And uh you came out of the box firing. I think I remember Judy Rankin saying that uh at least her rough homework uh suggested that in 1964 the total purses you all played for was maybe $305,000.

Susie Maxwell Berning 23:09

Yeah, if that. Yeah. You could finish a tournament and not even make any money. But if you're finishing the money, I I had a few checks I think were for $31.

Mike Gonzalez 23:20

Yeah.

Susie Maxwell Berning 23:21

You know.

Mike Gonzalez 23:22

Bruce, probably true of your time too. I think I remember you guys talking about, you know, you could make the cut, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get a check. Yeah.

Bruce Devlin 23:30

No, that's true. That's true. And uh and uh Susie's first check was $400 some odd dollars. I can remember Jack Nicholas. His first check was $33.33. He tied for whatever position it was, like 50th in the golf tournament, and uh with two other guys, and they split the hundred dollars, which was the last prize.

Susie Maxwell Berning 23:56

So that surprises me, Jack. I wonder what he shot.

Bruce Devlin 24:03

Oh, that I don't know what he shot, but but he he he was he just barely got in the money the first time. And I think it was in I think it was in Hartford, if if my memory anyhow, it doesn't matter, but it just goes to show that uh you think you think the uh prize money's changed a little bit today, Susie? My word.

Susie Maxwell Berning 24:23

Has it ever? You know, it's kind of like I was joking with Tiger at the uh Hall of Fame thing and asking if he wanted to trade checks or something. You know I mean, yeah, it's uh it's unbelievable. But you know, I think we had more fun.

Bruce Devlin 24:41

Yeah, I think so too.

Susie Maxwell Berning 24:42

We had more fun and we're we were closer knit and we still, you know, there's there's 15 ladies on tour that I still keep in touch with. And so we're just you know, we're friends, good friends.

Bruce Devlin 24:56

So you jumped out in uh 64 after joining the tour and became the uh rookie of the year that year.

Susie Maxwell Berning 25:04

Yeah. But I guess I was the only person that was new on tour. I don't know.

Bruce Devlin 25:09

I doubt that. I don't think that's true.

Mike Gonzalez 25:14

Uh well, she won four majors, as you mentioned, including one Western Open back in 1965, which uh a lot of our listeners would be familiar with, uh, with the Western Golf Association and its association with the men's tournament by the same name, as well as some fine amateur events, and then uh three U.S. Opens. So we're gonna talk about every one of those. But uh you mentioned, Susie, your first win did come kind of almost almost a home win, wasn't it? Uh Muskogee Country Club in the 1965 Muskogee Civiton Open by five shots over listen to these names, Mickey Wright, Kathy Cornelius, and Judy Kimball.

Susie Maxwell Berning 25:52

I didn't realize I won by five shots.

Mike Gonzalez 25:54

Yeah, there you go.

Susie Maxwell Berning 25:55

Because I think I was tied to the league going into Sunday. I can't remember. Uh yeah, that was uh a shock to my system. I think the best I'd done in my rookie year that was 64, was a uh third place finish, I think, in Phoenix. So um that was kind of a shock to me.

Mike Gonzalez 26:17

Do you remember much about the tournament?

Susie Maxwell Berning 26:21

No, I remember the golf course, uh but about the tournament, no, not really.

Mike Gonzalez 26:27

Well, it was it was here, as you mentioned, the previous year where you made your professional debut, and uh there was another young lady that made her professional debut in 1964 at that same golf course. That was Althea Gibson.

Susie Maxwell Berning 26:40

Was that Althea's first one?

Mike Gonzalez 26:42

It was.

Susie Maxwell Berning 26:43

Well, I do recall that uh I don't think they let her go in the clubhouse.

Mike Gonzalez 26:49

Interesting. How times have changed.

Susie Maxwell Berning 26:52

I know she had a tough time, and I know Marlene Hagee became really good friends with Althea and helped her out a lot in getting hotel rooms and stuff like that. The traveling was not easy for Lthea at the at the beginning.

Mike Gonzalez 27:08

Yeah, and uh that was still about the time uh the PGA tour was uh a white-only or Caucasian-only tour as well. It was about that time they removed their Caucasian-only uh clause in their contract, didn't they?

Susie Maxwell Berning 27:20

They had one in the contract.

Mike Gonzalez 27:22

They had one in their bylaws, which they removed. As a matter of fact, uh there was a PGA championship that was scheduled to be played in in California, and uh it was in the I want to say it was in the mid-60s. It was uh uh scheduled to be played, sorry, early in 1962. And uh the golf course said, Look, if you don't allow blacks, you're not gonna play your PGA championship on our golf course. So they moved the tournament to Aranamink in 1962, and that's where Gary Player won it.

Bruce Devlin 27:53

That's right.

Mike Gonzalez 27:54

Sort of fitting that Gary would win that tournament.

Bruce Devlin 27:57

We played, I was with Charlie Sifford, uh, same sort of thing, Susie, when he wasn't allowed in the clubhouse at a golf tournament in uh Memphis, Tennessee.

Susie Maxwell Berning 28:08

Yeah, and and they you know, Marlene would go to a hotel and pay for two rooms. And because a few of them didn't allow Althea to stay.

Bruce Devlin 28:21

So boy, half times have changed. Isn't that great though that they have?

Mike Gonzalez 28:26

So that first win uh see the the the gallery was estimated to be 1,500 people.

Susie Maxwell Berning 28:32

Oh, really?

Mike Gonzalez 28:34

And for the inaugural event 1962, 90 Muskogee businessmen each put up a hundred dollars to uh to sort of set the purse and and uh attract uh the talent to come into town for that inaugural event. Uh and then I think in 65 was the final event there, but uh that club did h host a U.S. Open, uh didn't it? You probably played in it.

Susie Maxwell Berning 28:55

Yes, they did. Yeah, I did play. I didn't play good.

Mike Gonzalez 28:58

In 1970.

Susie Maxwell Berning 28:59

Maybe I didn't play. When was that one?

Mike Gonzalez 29:02

1970s, that was right in between your wins because you won in 60.

Susie Maxwell Berning 29:06

I might have been pregnant, and I don't think I played, but I don't remember.

Mike Gonzalez 29:11

You know, that's one thing that's hard to you know go on the internet and find a lot of detail on your playing record from back in those days, as it is for everybody in your era. Yeah.

Susie Maxwell Berning 29:22

That's true. I have some old players' guides from 1965 and 66, and they're about four pages thick. And now you look at our player's guide, you know, in fact, they don't even make them anymore. But you know, they're 300 pages.

Mike Gonzalez 29:39

Yeah, yeah. Well, the next uh tournament was a big one, Bruce.

Bruce Devlin 29:43

I sure was. 65 Women's Western Open at Beverly Country Club. Three, one by three of them, Marlene Hagey. Do you remember that?

Susie Maxwell Berning 29:54

I do, yes, I do. I mean um during the practice rounds, Beverly was one tough golf course. Let me tell you.

Mike Gonzalez 30:07

It is fine old Donald Ross course.

Susie Maxwell Berning 30:09

Yeah, and during the practice rounds, I I didn't even come close to breaking 80, I know that. And I don't remember my exact my first three rounds, but I do know my last round was a 69, and it was the only round in the 60s for the whole tournament. Yeah, and I just I remember starting out, and I think I one putted the first six screens.

Mike Gonzalez 30:33

Oh my.

Susie Maxwell Berning 30:33

And that got me going, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 30:35

And you were you must have been the only because you beat Marlene by three and and you finished a two under, so you were the only player in the field that broke par on that golf course.

Susie Maxwell Berning 30:46

And my total was two under? I didn't realize that.

Bruce Devlin 30:48

Yeah, it was 73, 72, 76, 69.

Susie Maxwell Berning 30:54

Okay, good.

Mike Gonzalez 30:56

Well, I would I'll tell you this that golf course hasn't gotten any easier over the years. That was one challenging golf course.

Susie Maxwell Berning 31:02

Yeah. Well, and it's too bad, you know, the Western Open, it was a it was a great tournament run by wonderful people. Uh, and you know, it's too bad it didn't continue.

Mike Gonzalez 31:13

Yeah, so that was a major on the LPGA tour from 19, well, uh and the predecessor tour from 1930 all the way through to uh to 1967. So it still had a couple playings left before uh that stopped being a major. As a matter of fact, during much of your playing years, there were probably only two majors that you were competing for, right? The U.S. Open and the LPGA championship.

Susie Maxwell Berning 31:35

That's so true, and now they have like five majors.

Mike Gonzalez 31:38

Five now.

Susie Maxwell Berning 31:39

So really counting the majors that people win nowadays versus the majors that uh Kathy Whitworth won, or the people in my time, you know, is is kind of hard to measure.

Mike Gonzalez 31:50

Yeah. Yeah, my point. My point is for you winning four majors during the the years you played, that was a pretty high percentage of the majors you actually ended up playing in.

Susie Maxwell Berning 32:01

Uh probably so. I I don't recall. I finished second in the open in 67, I know, and then I finished second in um the LPJ Championship uh held uh in the Cascades outside of New York. And I to this day I remember making a stupid decision on the third round that cost me the tournament there.

Mike Gonzalez 32:27

Well, let's go fast forward a couple of years. We're now at the 1967 Louise Suggs Invitational at Cypress Creek Country Club in Florida, and you won that one in a playoff with Sandra Haney, who we're gonna be talking to on Thursday on the on the program.

Susie Maxwell Berning 32:44

Oh, okay. Tell her I for me.

Mike Gonzalez 32:46

Yeah, we'll do that. Yeah. Do you recall much about uh the details of these tournaments that go back that far?

Susie Maxwell Berning 32:54

Well, that one I I do. And uh it's uh after 18 holes, I was tied with Sandra Haney, as you said, on Sunday, and uh I had to go to the bathroom. So I went into the clubhouse, went to the bathroom, and then I had to kind of sneak under the ropes and through the people to get to the first tee. And as I popped up out of the crowd and under the ropes, I'm almost face to face with Haney, and I says, Bet you didn't think I was gonna show up, did you? I mean, I guess I must have been some little smarty ass person. I think that shook her up. And I won, I think, the first total.

Mike Gonzalez 33:39

I guess it's hard to find, yeah, it's hard to find detailed records of all that. As you know, as as good as the internet is, uh, some of this detail is very, very difficult to find. So we still have to rely on your memory from back in that day.

Susie Maxwell Berning 33:52

Yeah. Well that I do remember that incident on that that um and and yeah, I'll tell you another funny story. Uh or maybe I should wait on this one. This was this involves the 67 US Open.

Mike Gonzalez 34:14

Yeah, go ahead. All right. So yeah.

Susie Maxwell Berning 34:16

Um that's the one that Kathleen Lacoste won as an amateur.

Mike Gonzalez 34:20

Oh the yeah, at the homestead, yeah.

Susie Maxwell Berning 34:22

And I yeah, at the homestead and I finished second.

Mike Gonzalez 34:24

She was the French amateur.

Susie Maxwell Berning 34:26

And I do recall, I mean, I was tied with her. She did play good. She had Bertie died, I think, the 17th old. And meanwhile, I am boguing the sixteenth old by flubbing a chip. And I mean, to this day I can recall the chip. Uh I wasn't used to being muted grass and the grass kind of grabbed my club and anyway. After the tournament's over with and you know, I I don't think we drank then. I mean, maybe we had a beer, I don't even remember. Anyway, we're all staying around a a lodge and cabins. And so Lacosse shirt, you know, the shirt with the alligator.

Mike Gonzalez 35:05

That was her father. Right.

Susie Maxwell Berning 35:06

Yeah, well I went knocking on various doors of LPJ players, and I said, I know you wear Lacosse shirts. Give me. Let me have 'em. And I went to Haney and why do you want my shirt? I said, just let me have your shirt. Well, there was a barbecue and a bomb fire. That's that's where the shirts ended up. Oh dear. Most um most everybody thought it was funny, except uh Sandra Haney was rather upset with me.

Bruce Devlin 35:44

Well, you weren't finished. I was gonna say, you weren't finished in '67 after finishing second there. You weren't also one uh in Milwaukee.

Susie Maxwell Berning 35:53

Oh yeah, that's right. I forgot that one. I just put it, I may never put a look down on that one. I remember good old bullseye, and boy, uh, you know, it's not funny how you remember things. Uh I remember I was someone told me, or I just figured it out, I think, if I keep the putting real low to the ground going back, and low to the ground coming through, the ball would just roll and roll and roll and just disappear. And I made so many putts that tournament by you know putting just outstanding.

Mike Gonzalez 36:26

Well, you you must have, huh?

Bruce Devlin 36:27

Yeah, she won by what? Five five over four players, and one of those players was Judy Rankin. Oh.

Susie Maxwell Berning 36:36

My good friend.

Mike Gonzalez 36:38

Yeah. Yeah, we're gonna we just got Judy scheduled yesterday, so we're gonna be talking to her in a couple of weeks also, and uh really looking forward to that visit. But yeah, you must have been rolling the rock. This was the the Milwaukee JC Open at North Shore Country Club, which uh I'm familiar with because I lived in Milwaukee for a while.

Susie Maxwell Berning 36:54

Yeah, good course.

Mike Gonzalez 36:56

Yeah, yeah. Well, let's go on, Bruce, to that next uh or I guess the first U.S. women's open win. Yeah.

Susie Maxwell Berning 37:04

Ms. Alum Springs.

Bruce Devlin 37:06

Yeah, Ms. Alum Springs. Yeah. Three over guess who? Mickey Wright. What a win, huh?

Susie Maxwell Berning 37:13

Yeah.

Bruce Devlin 37:13

You had to be proud of that.

Susie Maxwell Berning 37:15

Well, it was kind of a shock to my system. Uh, because uh I I was married seven weeks before, seven or eight weeks before. So I was newly I was at newlywed and I had only played one tournament before that one after the marriage and that was in uh Sutton Mass, I remember. In fact, I was playing I went up to Sandra's music and I says, Hey, we're paired together at the US Open first round. And she says, No, no, we aren't. I'm playing with some amateur Bernie. Well, the US PA had just me entered as Susie Bernie, not Susie Maxwell. No, she says, No we aren't. But anyway, um, you know, I I led, I think I led every day there. Shot a 69 the first round and never looked back. But I I really say because of being a new bride, my mind was not on my golf once I got home. Once I got back to the hotel and stuff. And um to this day I say, you know, everybody says, Oh, it's too bad you had children and all that. No, it's not. They kept my mind away from golf once the round was over with. And uh I I really contribute. Um being married and having children on tour helped me be more relaxed and not worry about my golf so much.

Mike Gonzalez 38:39

Yeah, because your daughters, um uh Robin and Cindy, they uh they went out on tour with you during the summertime.

Susie Maxwell Berning 38:46

Pretty much every summer, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 38:48

That sounds familiar, Bruce.

Susie Maxwell Berning 38:50

Yeah, it does, doesn't it?

Mike Gonzalez 38:52

A lot of you probably caravan together from town to town. It was almost like uh I I always looked at it, and I've I think I've mentioned this in another episode with somebody, back in the 60s in particular, it had to feel a little bit like a barnstorming circus, going to town to town and set setting up the circus, you know, and and and holding the event and then tearing it all down, packing up the cars, and off you go again, right?

Susie Maxwell Berning 39:13

Well, I never thought of it that way, but we definitely caravan a lot. You know, and I I to this day I ask myself, how? How Boris, how did we find places?

Mike Gonzalez 39:24

I don't know. No GPS. No GPS.

Susie Maxwell Berning 39:27

I mean, we got what they called a fact sheet sometimes that would tell us sometimes. Yeah, tell us what golf course we're playing. Um, but it didn't tell us how to get there. Uh I guess we stopped at a lot of gas stations and asked a lot of directions. I don't know.

Bruce Devlin 39:44

Well, I remember I remember carrying with me one of those uh uh maps, you know, where from uh you got each state, you had a map for each state, a road atlas. Yeah, like an atlas. Uh and that was how I sort of tried to find my way around.

Susie Maxwell Berning 40:02

Somehow we did. Well, there weren't as many roads in, maybe.

Bruce Devlin 40:07

Yeah, that's probably true too.

Mike Gonzalez 40:10

I don't know, but it uh it I I of course I was driving back then too, but I I I marveled at how people got around back back then because as you said, uh you you had an address, but uh boy, looking at some of those maps, how to figure that out must have been a challenge.

Susie Maxwell Berning 40:24

Yeah, yeah, especially when you're by yourself. Now, if you were if someone else is in your car with you, then of course they can be telling you where to go and what to do and stuff. Um, you know, I mean uh at one time, let's see, I don't know quite maybe you do know. Uh Mike, uh the LPJ at one time, I want to say it was about 1967. If you finish in the top ten, you got a tornado, Oldsmobile Tornado to drive. And we drove six thousand miles and then we got a new one. And we had our name on both sides of the doors, and tornadoes were the hot sports car then.

Mike Gonzalez 41:04

Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Susie Maxwell Berning 41:05

I mean and one day I'm driving from LA and I think I'm heading to El Paso. I got stopped twice for doing over a hundred miles an hour. I mean, you couldn't feel it. You think you're going to 60 and all of a sudden you're going a hundred. And um, you know, I that time you know, when you got a ticket out of state, and they just told you they gave you a and they said mail it in.

Mike Gonzalez 41:32

Yeah.

Susie Maxwell Berning 41:33

Well, I didn't trust you.

Mike Gonzalez 41:35

I didn't live to California and the checks in the mail, huh? Yeah, yeah.

Susie Maxwell Berning 41:42

And I'm in Chicago, and my father calls me and he says, Um, there's a certified letter here for you from the state of California. Dad, open it up. What's it say? Oh, there's a warrant for my arrest in the state of California.

Mike Gonzalez 42:01

A scoff law in the house.

Susie Maxwell Berning 42:03

Yeah, so I I was careful in California for seven years.

Mike Gonzalez 42:09

Thank you for listening to another episode of For the Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game.