PATTY BERG
Game 20 | August 21, 1951 | Patty Berg
The graduate of Washburn High School and the University of Minnesota returned home for a local event. The future Hall-of-Famer won 60 times on the LPGA tom: She learned to golf at Interlachen Country Club and is credited as the force behind the forming of the Ladies Professional Golf Association. A three-time Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year, she died in 2006 at age 88.
Game 363 | August 9, 1988 | Duane Netland, Patty Berg
It had been 37 years since Berg had been the first female guest speaker in Dunkers history. She won her last tournament in 1962, but continued to appear at clinics around the country, putting on some 16,000 clinics in her career. Netland, a former Minneapolis Tribune sports writer from Willmar; Minnesota, was working on a profile of Berg when they appeared together at Dunkers.
Game 490 | November 17, 1995 | Patty Berg, Donna DeVarona
This was a repeat appearance for both women. Minneapolis-native Berg recalled that she had been the first female guest of Dunkers in 1951 and complimented the organization for having so many women members, most of whom were in attendance that morning. It was her next-to-last appearance in Minnesota. She returned for the Solheim Cup at Interlachen in 2002, announced she had Alzheimer's Disease in December 2004 and died in Florida 21 months later at age 88. De Varona, the former Olympic gold medal winning swimmer, was a spokesperson for the Women's Sports Foundation in 1995.
