West Virginia Golf Association

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Berridge Long Copen – 2016

Born in Huntington, W. Va. in 1936, Berridge completed in numerous West Virginia Women’s Amateur Championship tournaments and won 7 times with 5 consecutive wins in1952-1956 and single wins in 1958 and 1961, all before the age of 24.

At the early age of 7, Berridge was introduced to golf by her parents. With their encouragement and her enthusiasm, by age 12 Berridge had a 14 handicap and won the fourth flight in the W. Va. Women’s Amateur Championship at The Greenbrier.

Three years later Berridge’s game had improved dramatically and at age 15 she won the first of her 7 Women’s Championships. Her record of 5 straight championships from 1952 through 1956 matched the mark set by Fritzi Stifel Quarrier some years earlier.

Previously at age 14, Berridge had won the first of several Women’s Championships at her home course, Guyan Golf & Country Club. She also set the women’s course record of 67 at Guyan while playing with fellow Hall of Fame Inductee and Guyan member William C. Campbell.

Berridge also competed at the USGA and national level. Twice she advanced to the semifinals of the Women’s Western Amateur. Berridge also played in the finals of the Women’s Western Junior Championship two consecutive years. At age 16 she was the co-medalist and reached the quarterfinal matches in the U S. Girls’ Junior Championship. Berridge played in the 1958 quarter-final matches of the U. S. Women’s Amateur Championship, an event in which she competed a total of 5 times.  That same year she was the fifth low amateur in the U. S. Women’s Open and the second low amateur in the Women’s Western Open.

While in college, Berridge played twice in the Women’s Intercollegiate. She lost in the 1955 finals. Berridge was one of only two women receiving a W. Va. Centennial Sports Great Award in 1963. Subsequently, she was inducted into the W. Va. Sports Hall of Fame, the third woman to be so honored.

Throughout her competitive golfing career, Berridge competed in many prestigious amateur tournaments and invitationals across the country, from Brookline, MA to Sacramento, CA. She competed or played with some of the notable women amateur golfers of her era—e.g., Anne Quast, Barbara McIntire, Judy Bell (later first female president of the USGA), Joanne Gunderson Carner, Alice Dye (wife of golf course architect Pete Dye) and Mickey Wright (probably the greatest female player of all time).

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