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, . , 4 Patty Berg Ready to Retire After 22 Years on Golf Trail Work-Horse of Tournament Circuit Admits New Aches, Pains All the Time at 35 By HAL WOOD United Press Sports Writer SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., May 18.— After 22 years of touring tournament competition and nearly a half -million miles of travel, plump and pert Patty Berg of the golfing circles wants to retire. The main driving force in the organization and promotion of the Womens Professional Golf Association, Patty would like to relax a bit instead of continuing the driving pace she has in recent years. "Ive had just about enough of this traveling," says Patty. "I seem to have new aches and pains all the time. And at 35 you dont recuperate as fast as you used to. "It is my belief that professional golf is just as hard on a woman as playing professional football is to men. And did you ever hear of a professional football player who stayed in the game 22 years?" It has been Pattys hope that there would be more competent young professionals I | come along to help swell the ranks of her organization. But to date there are only about 15 top-notch touring pros worthy of the name. Work-Horse of Circuit Miss Berg is the work-horse of the tournament circuit. She is the star of the weekly clinic staged by the girls — and to date there has been on one come up who is close to Patty in the antics she performs for the gallieries. For more than hour she goes through a rountine that leaves the aduience laughing — and Patty completely fagged out. "It has reached the place now on these tours that I have to get nearly 12 hours of sleep every night to be able to compete," says Patty. "Which proves, of course, that Im not as young as I used to be." Most of the men professionals are just reaching their peak at Pattys age. But few of them have toured as long and as hard and as successfully as the Minneapolis freckle-face. Recently she had a big load taken off her shoulders when the United States Golf Association, Womens division, decided to take over the Womens National Open Tournament. This has in the past been staged by the Womens PGA. "We have advanced a lot of steps in the few years of the Womens PGA," she says. "But we still have a long way to go. I believe that some day our average purse will be around 0,000, instead of ,500 to ,000 for which we now play. "We have been out-drawing some of the mens tournaments the past year and we always are asked back." Patty rates Jackie Pung, the Honolulu housewife, as the best attraction among the newcomers on the tour. "Of course," she says, "the loss of Babe LMdriksen on our tour was a tough blow. There just isnt another person like the Babe." ! |
