Patricia J. Berg was born February 13, 1918, Minneapolis, Minnesota. She joined the Marine Corps in 1943. She was a Procurement Officer with the Eastern Procurement Division in Philadelphia, PA until 1945.
She started playing golf at the age of fourteen. Two years later she won the Minneapolis City Championship and at eighteen she was the state amateur champion. Winning twenty-nine titles in seven years, including the 1938 U. S. Amateur, and she was easily the most famous female golfer in the country. She turned professional in 1940 with no women's professional tour at that time, and just three or four tournaments a year, so she earned income conducting clinics and exhibitions. She also worked for Wilson Sporting Goods, which began to manufacture "Patty Berg" signature golf clubs.
Returning to golf at the end of the war, she won the 1946 U. S. Women's Open. Impacting the future of women's golf, Patty Berg became a founder and the first president of the Ladies' Professional Golf Association (LPGA) in 1948.
In eleven years, Berg won thirty-nine LPGA tournaments. She was the leading money winner in 1954, 1955, and 1957. In addition to winning the Vare Trophy for the lowest average round in 1953, 1955, and 1956, The Associated Press named her female athlete of the year in 1938, 1943, and 1955.
Berg was a tireless goodwill ambassador for golf and conducted thousands of exhibitions and clinics. She trained young professionals who signed contracts with Wilson Sporting Goods. Active in philanthropic endeavors she was the first woman honored by the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation with the 1976 Humanitarian Sports Award. In 1979 the LPGA established the "Patty Berg Award" for outstanding contributions to women's golf.
Source: http://www.usmc-mccs.org/sports/hof/2003-berg.cfm
