1972 U.S. Women's Open Winner, Scores
The 1972 U.S. Women's Open was the 27th time this major championship was played. Susie Maxwell Berning won it for the second time, making a late birdie for a one-stroke victory.
Winner: Susie Maxwell Berning, 299
Where it was played: Winged Foot Golf Club (East Course) in Mamaroneck, New York
Tournament dates: June 29-July 2, 1972
Leader after first round: Shirley Englehorn, 72
Leader after second round: Shirley Englehorn, 147
Leader after third round: Pam Barnett, 224
What Happened in the 1972 U.S. Women's Open
Despite opening with a first-round 79, Susie Maxwell Berning won the 1972 U.S. Women's Open by one stroke over a trio of runners-up — Judy Rankin, Pam Barnett and Kathy Ahern. It was Berning's second U.S. Women's Open victory, making her, at the time, just the sixth golfer to win multiple USWO titles. She won again the following year for a third title.The 79 Berning scored in Round 1 remains to this day the highest first-round score by any golfer who went on to win this major.
Berning was seven strokes off the lead of Shirley Englehorn following that first round. For Englehorn, this was her first tournament in a year after a couple of surgeries to fuse bones in her ankle. She walked 18 holes for the first time since the surgery just a week before the tournament started, deciding only then to play. Englehorn held her lead after the second round (Berning was five behind), but ultimately finished tied for 13th place.
Pam Barnett took the lead after the third round, and Berning started the final round four strokes behind. When Berning reached the 17th green, she was one behind Barnett, still the leader. Berning sank a 20-foot birdie putt on the 17th, then parred No. 18 for a 71, and posted 299.
Just after Berning finished, Barnett reached the 17th. But she bogeyed to fall one behind Berning, and that's where Barnett finished. Rankin had a 73 in the final round, and Ahern's final-round 70 was the low score of the tournament.
Four-time U.S. Women's Open champ Mickey Wright, who beginning in 1970 went into semi-retirement, tied for sixth place. It was her last Top 10 finish in any major, and she played the USWO only once more after this. Marilynn Smith, one of the LPGA's original 13 co-founders, played in her 20th consecutive USWO, the first golfer to reach that mark.
1972 U.S. Women's Open Final Scores
| Susie Berning | 79-73-76-71—299 |
| Judy Rankin | 76-75-76-73—300 |
| Pam Barnett | 73-76-75-76—300 |
| Kathy Ahern | 74-80-76-70—300 |
| Betty Burfeindt | 75-78-74-75—302 |
| Mickey Wright | 77-80-76-71—304 |
| Gloria Ehret | 74-74-80-76—304 |
| a-Jane Booth | 79-75-78-72—304 |
| a-Carol Semple | 79-79-74-73—305 |
| Carol Mann | 79-77-78-71—305 |
| Jocelyne Bourassa | 76-75-78-76—305 |
| Sharon Miller | 79-74-79-74—306 |
| Betsy Cullen | 73-78-78-77—306 |
| JoAnn Prentice | 79-78-75-75—307 |
| Hisako "Chako" Higuchi | 78-77-79-73—307 |
| Sandra Haynie | 83-76-73-75—307 |
| Shirley Englehorn | 72-75-82-78—307 |
| Jane Blalock | 78-78-77-74—307 |
| Kathy Whitworth | 79-79-72-78—308 |
| Sue Roberts | 77-78-76-77—308 |
| Betsy Rawls | 77-76-74-81—308 |
| Sandra Palmer | 78-76-77-77—308 |
| Shelley Hamlin | 78-74-79-77—308 |
| Kathy Cornelius | 74-80-75-79—308 |
| Donna Caponi Young | 80-75-75-79—309 |
| Gerda Boykin | 81-76-81-71—309 |
| Marlene Hagge | 78-79-80-73—310 |
| Peggy Wilson | 78-75-82-76—311 |
| Mary Mills | 80-78-78-76—312 |
| Clifford Ann Creed | 79-74-78-81—312 |
| JoAnne Carner | 79-79-75-79—312 |
| Debbie Austin | 80-76-79-77—312 |
| a-Laura Baugh | 79-80-77-78—314 |
| a-Nancy Syms | 81-79-78-77—315 |
| Marilynn Smith | 76-80-80-79—315 |
| DeDe Owens | 77-75-85-78—315 |
| Pam Higgins | 77-78-81-79—315 |
| Murle Breer | 83-76-82-74—315 |
| Louise Suggs | 78-80-82-76—316 |
| Sally Little | 82-79-81-75—317 |
| Barbara Myers | 78-82-80-79—319 |
| Judy Kimball | 76-83-83-77—319 |
| a-Alice Dye | 78-80-82-79—319 |
| Mary Lou Daniel | 79-82-82-77—320 |
| a-Marlene Streit | 78-81-81-81—321 |
| Masako Sasaki | 74-80-84-83—321 |
| Renee Powell | 84-76-85-76—321 |
| a-Martha Kirouac | 79-82-82-78—321 |
| Jan Ferraris | 80-78-79-84—321 |
| Janet LePera | 82-79-84-77—322 |
| LeNore Beserra | 78-82-81-81—322 |
| a-Connie Day | 77-82-90-80—329 |
| a-Judith Johnson | 82-79-89-80—330 |
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1971 U.S. Women's Open - 1973 U.S. Women's Open
Sources:
Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard. Scorebard, U.S. Women's Open, July 1, 1972, https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AUISAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QOEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5321%2C78351.
Ladies Professional Golf Association. 2004 LPGA Media Guides, Player Biographies, Mickey Wright.
Spokane (Wash.) Spokesman-Review. "Surprising Shirley Tops Women's Open," Associated Press, June 30, 1972, https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ae9LAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Fu0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6912%2C5688236.
Spokane (Wash.) Spokesman-Review. "Pam Barnett's 75 Takes Open Lead," Associated Press, July 2, 1972, https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ku0vAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Xu0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4261%2C737364.
United States Golf Association. U.S. Women's Open Past Champions, 1972, via Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20100314144601/https://www.uswomensopen.com/history/pastchamps/1972.html.
United States Golf Association. U.S. Women's Open Records, https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/media/online-media-center/usga-records/u-s--women-s-open-records.html.
United States Golf Association. U.S. Women's Open, Records & Results, 1972, https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/championships/history-timeline/scoring-and-stats/scoring.html#!&y=1972.
