Mary Ann Bierman is an icon in local golfing circles and is still going strong at age 70.
View full sizeMary Ann Bierman, 70, recently won her 12th Cleveland Women's Golf Association title.In her long and illustrious career, local golf legend Mary Ann Bierman has faced hundreds of competitors, but her toughest opponent grew up under the same roof.
"My daughter Anne [Caja]," Bierman said without hesitation when asked to name the toughest competitor she ever played. "She wanted to win maybe more than I did."
But the fact is no one has won more in local golf circles than Bierman, who will turn 71 in October. She recently won her 12th championship in the Cleveland Women's Golf Association. She has won at least one title in each of the past six decades.
"Her record speaks for itself," said Judd Stephenson, head pro at Avon Oaks Country Club. "Her swing has stood the test of time."
Whereas Bierman's reputation may strike fear into golfers who step up to the first tee against her in local tournaments, she is anything but intimidating while drinking a cup of coffee in the kitchen of her home in South Russell one late summer morning. It's like visiting your favorite aunt.
Conversation ranges from the weather to politics, and like any proud mother or grandmother, she takes a chance to brag about her children and grandchildren. In fact, the most memorable events in her career were having her 14-year-old son Bill caddy for her when she won the Cleveland district championship at Chagrin Valley in 1981 and having her 20-year-old grandson Kevin Caja caddy for her when she won her 12th CWGA title last month at Lake Forest.
Still deliberate, she still hits a long, straight ball, averaging 220 yards off the tee, and still has incredible finesse around the greens.
Indeed, it has been quite a ride for the little girl who picked up her first club at 12, won her first tournament at 14 and recorded her first of six career holes in one at 15. Growing up as Mary Ann Sherry in Pittsburgh, she started playing at the urging of her father, Jim Sherry.
"I took to it right away," Bierman said, recalling her first score was a 113.
Of course, in the 1950s, there weren't a lot of athletic outlets for girls. There were no high school teams, so all her competition came in summer tournaments.
She won the Western Pennsylvania Junior Girls title in 1954, 1956 and 1959 and the Pennsylvania Junior Girls title in 1957. She was 16 when she played in an LPGA tournament and 17 when she played in the USGA women's open in Pittsburgh.
But she never really thought about turning pro. It was expensive and time-consuming, and the travel didn't appeal to her. She had married Bill Bierman at 22. They raised their three children here after relocating in 1968 for Bill's job in sales with U.S. Steel. Daughter Anne became an All-American at William & Mary. Now Anne Caja, she's the junior varsity boys golf coach at Gilmour Academy. Kathy was a synchronized swimmer at the University of Richmond and Miami University and Bill, a runner-up in the state boys golf tournament as a high school senior, played golf at the University of Virginia.
But it's their mother who has been the dominant athlete in the family. At one point, she held or tied 11 course records for women. Last year, she shot her age -- 69 -- on a course in Florida.
For all the championships, honors and awards Bierman has won, however, the thing she is most proud of is founding the Ohio Girls Golf Foundation in 1994.
Anne actually was the impetus. When she attended Chagrin Falls High in 1980, there was no girls golf team so she played on the boys team -- becoming a co-captain and the No. 1 player. In fact, as recently as 1994 there were virtually no girls golf teams in the metropolitan area. Today there are more than 250, a direct result of the efforts of Bierman, Caja, Stephenson, Burke and people like LPGA pro Barb Mucha and Northern Ohio PGA Executive Director Dominic Antenucci along with supporters like Laura Briedis Tomko, Zachary Bruell, Terry Fergus, Patty Jacobson, Betty Peppard, Dorothea Polster and Margaret Swope.
"I just felt girls needed an opportunity to participate and be the best they could be," said Bierman, who taught junior high math, English and history at St. Joan of Arc and later taught English at Cuyahoga Community College.
The mission of the OGGF is to encourage, sponsor and support the game of golf for girls by providing college scholarships, golf training programs and financial assistance to attend designated golf tournaments.
Bierman never had that kind of support, and the organization came along too late to actually help Caja. But the two still enjoyed plenty of success as well as a healthy competition, one that never carried over off the course.
Caja was 14 the first time she faced her mother in a tournament. She said she wasn't as nervous playing against her mom as she was playing opponents she didn't know.
"I knew her," Caja said. "I knew her game and what she was capable of."
So when Caja defeated her mother to win the CWGA championship in 1983, it was a special moment.
"To beat my mom," Caja said, "it's an accomplishment."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: mschmitt@plaind.com, 216-999-4668