“Sports Heroes Who Served” is a series showcasing the achievements of athletes who have served in the U.S. military.
Patty Berg was the founder and first president of the Ladies Professional Golf Association and won 15 major championships, still holding the record for most major championship wins by a female golfer. She also served as a lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserves during World War II.
Berg was born in Minneapolis on February 13, 1918. Her father, Herman Berg Sr., was a grain merchant and a member of the Chicago Board of Trade and the Minneapolis Board of Trade. Both he and Berg's mother, Theresa Berg, supported their daughter's athletic dreams.
As a teenager, Berg played quarterback for the Minneapolis 50th Street Tigers football team, the only girl on a team that also included Bud Wilkinson, future football coach at the University of Oklahoma.
Also, as a teenager, she played amateur golf and then turned professional. She began her amateur golf career in 1934, won the Minneapolis City Championship, and was named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year in 1938, the first time she received this honor three times.
Berg enlisted in the Marines at age 25 and served from 1943 to 1945. Although she was already a world-famous golfer, reporters were curious as to why she had enlisted.
In an interview with a Pittsburgh Press reporter, Berg said he chose the Marines because two of his childhood heroes, Bernie Bierman and Paul Kennedy, served in the Marines during World War II. Bierman was the football coach at the University of Minnesota, and Kennedy was Berg's cousin.
During the war, Berg played in charity golf tournaments to raise funds and awareness for the war effort; in 1944, she reportedly raised $3 million for the war effort, a huge sum at the time.
She also served as a Marine Corps procurement officer in the Eastern Procurement Division in Philadelphia.
Berg won 15 major championships during her career, including the U.S. Women's Open (1946), Western Open (1941, 1943, 1948, 1951, 1955, 1957, 1958) and Titleholders (1937, 1938, 1939, 1948, 1953, 1955, 1957).
She offered some advice to golf lovers: “Don't rush. Play one stroke at a time, just like you live one day at a time. And don't think about anything else but the ball. The moment you start thinking about anything other than the ball, you see all the problems.”
“I'm so glad I quit football,” Berg joked when she was inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame.
The association currently presents the Patty Berg Award annually to the person who has contributed most significantly to women's golf.
Berg died in 2006 at the age of 88.