Ben Hogan

Youth and character

Born with Stephenville, Texas it grows with 16 kilometers from there with Dublin, Texas where it started to work like Cadet at age the eleven years and as professional golfor in 1931. According to the accounts of the time Hogan was the best golfor of his time and is always regarded as one of the largest players of all times.

The “falcon” showed a savage determination and of an iron will which, combined with its undeniable technique, formed one will have able with it to only intimidate its adversaries until the tender. The legend of Hogan also reports that it was known like the “small man of ice”. This expression seems to be forged at the time of its famous victory at the time of the British Open with Carnoustie in 1953 and refers to its inflexible attitude and, at that time, apparently very of coolness, which was itself the result of a swing of golf which was designed to improve rather than to degrade itself when he played under the pressure. In competition, Hogan was miserly of its words and few adversaries were able to keep their capacity vis-a-vis his frozen radiation.

The “Hogan season”

Its victory with Carnoustie was the point of one season old organ 1953 out of the commun run, during which it gained five of the six tournaments that it disputed as well as the three first major tournaments of the year (a prowess which is always called the “Slam of Hogan”). Moreover, this year there it was private of any chance to gain the Large Slam because the dates on which British Open and PGA Championship were played were so close that it was not possible for him, taking into account the state to international transport at the time, to return in time to the United States to dispute fourth major year.

Remainder will be noted that Hogan often refused to play the PGA Championship, making the dead end more and more often progressively of his career.

Its new victories in Large Slam place it at the fourth rank (with equality with Gary Player) of the best golfeurs of all times. It is preceded in this classification only by Jack Nicklaus (18), Tiger Woods (13 - series always in progress) and Walter Hagen (11).

Serious accident

Between 1938 and 1959, Ben Hogan gained 63 professional tournaments notwithstanding the fact that its career was stopped in its youth by the Second world war and an car accident which failed to be to him fatal. The vehicle of Hogan and his wife, Valerie, undergo a head-on collision with a bus during the winter 1949.

This accident left Hogan with a double fracture of the Pelvis, a fracture of the Clavicule, another of the ankle left, a ruffled Côte and a blood Caillot which failed to be to him fatal. It was going to keep of it all its life of the after-effects such as problems of blood circulation and other physical handicaps. Its doctors feared that it can go never again without same daring to evoke the fact of playing golf in competition.

Swing of Hogan

Hogan is often regarded as the best striker of ball having ever practiced the golf. In spite of its exceptional prize list in tournaments, it is undoubtedly this aspect which is worth to him will have it which he enjoys still today.

Hogan was known to be involved more than any of its adversaries and one says that he “invented the drive”. It was also one of the first players to make coincide certain clubs (canes) with distances or benchmarks on the course, such as bunkers or trees, in order to improve its control of the distance.

It was of opinion that the swing of each individual was “in the gangue” and that to control it requires much drive and repetition. It is thus known to be leaning lasting of the years on the swing of golf, testing many theories and methods before arriving at an end product which brought its greater successes to him.

Young person, it was prone to play his ball in marked Hook. Although of small size (1m68) and weighing only 64kg, at the beginning of its career it was able to take long departures and aligned itself even in competitions of longest the Drive.

It was often said that before its accident, Hogan used in tournament a catch (grip) strong (which implies that the hands seize to it sleeve of the cane on the right than it is not usual), whereas it was often exerted by using a weak catch (which implies that the back its wrist left faced the objective), and that had a negative effect on its performances or, at least, the reliability of its swing, until this moment (source: John Jacobs in his book “Fifty Greater Lessons of Golf of the Century”).

Jacobs affirms to hold this information of Byron Nelson and known as moreover that Hogan developed and used the strong catch whereas he was yet only one young person in order to manage to as strike the ball far as his larger adversaries and more forts. This grip extremely was the reason for which one could on the occasion see Hogan striking strange hooks very marked which showed a disaster. Nelson and Hogan grew both has Fort Worth and one knows that they played one against the other whereas they were still adolescent.

The swing developed later by Hogan produced famous “the Fade of Hogan”, low than normal for a large player and whose trajectory started from left to go on the right. This trajectory of ball was the result of the combination of a swing intended to produce “Draw” with a weak catch, which as for it was intended to avoid at all costs the creation of one in hook. This process largely improved the precision of strike of Hogan to the detriment their length. It seems certain that during his period of glory, Ben Hogan was to be arranged among the professionals of which the length of ball was short with average.

The secrecy of Hogan

It is thought that it developed a “secrecy” which made its swing quasi automatic. Its secrecy, a particular of the wrists, known movement under the name of “cupping under”, was revealed in 1955 in an article of stores Life, although much thinks that Hogan revealed only one part of it. Since then, one claimed in stores Golf Digest that the second element of the secrecy of Hogan would have been the way in which it made use of its right knee to set in motion its swing and, moreover, that this movement was essential for the correct installation of the movement of the wrists.

“Five Basic principles” and the handbook of golf

Hogan thought that the capacity to have swing of a solid and reproducible golf required the control only one reduced number of essential components which, realized correctly and in sequence, constituted the gasoline of the swing. Its work, " Five Lessons: basic principles of Golf" is perhaps the instruction manual of golf more read ever written, although the " Rouge" little book; of Harvey Penick could also assert this title, and the principles which it contains are often simply repeated without more by modern “the gurus of the swing”.

The book of Ben Hogan “the Five Lessons of Golf” was initially published as a series of articles in five parts starting with the edition of March 1957 of stores Sports Illustrated and was published in the form of book later during the same year. It is now with its sixty-fourth edition and, today still, it maintains a place close to the top of the sales at Amazon.com. The joint author of the book was Herbert Warren Wind and the illustrator was the artist Anthony Ravielli.

Technique of striking of ball

Ben Hogan is largely recognized as having had the best striking of ball than one ever saw. Its only rival for this title is the remarkable Canadian professional Moe Norman whose movement was marked by a total misses orthodoxy in comparison with the swing of Hogan while being terribly effective.

The striking of Hogan was described like almost miraculous share of the observers as expert as Jack Nicklaus, which saw it playing only several years after its best years, but which did not hesitate to answer the question “is Tiger Woods the best striker than you ever saw? ” while declaring: “Not, not - Ben Hogan without any doubt”. (Golf Digest, April 2004).

Another testimony of the statute obtained by Hogan (and Norman) near the best golfeurs is provided by Tiger Woods which recently declared than it wished “to control its swing in the same way” than Moe Norman and Ben Hogan. Woods did not hesitate to protest that these players were the only ones “to have never controlled their swing” in the sense that they had a total control of it and, consequently, that they also controlled the flight of the ball (Golf Digest, January 2005).

Although its striking was perhaps the best of all times, Hogan is also known to have been very bad with the putting according to the professional standards, as private individuals on slow greens. Although he suffered from the “yips” at the end of his career, Hogan was recognized at certain times of its career like an effective putter remotely average with short on fast surfaces of the Open US style.

Career and prize list

For the only year 1948, Hogan gained ten tournaments, including Open U.S. with Riviera Country Club, a course called thereafter the “path of Hogan” because of its success. Colonial Country Club in Forth Worth, a course of modern championship, carries the same nickname and could deserve it more. The “path of Hogan” also indicates the complex of drive of the FBI and, in this case, name goes back to the end of the XIXe century because of a cartoon. It is only later that the name was allotted to courses on which Hogan excelled. The sixth hole with Carnoustie, one by five at the beginning of which Hogan chooses a line of play considered for its difficulty with each turn of the British Open of 1953 recently was also called the path of Hogan.

Before its accident of 1949, Hogan had never really managed to conquer the heart of crowd although it is one of the best golfeurs of its time. Perhaps this ascribable with its cold and reserved personality was. But when it shook and astonished world by the golf while taking part in a tournament only eleven months after its accident and that it taken one surprising second place in Los Angeles Open of 1950 after having lost in play-off vis-a-vis Sam Snead, he was acclaimed by supporters in extase. “Its legs were not simply enough strong to still carry its heart”, wrote the famous sports correspondent Grantland Rice about her short defeat. It was to prove with its criticisms as with itself which it could always overcome by supplementing five months later its return by gaining its second Open U.S. at the end of a play-off played in eighteen holes vis-a-vis Lloyd Mangrum and George Fazio with the Merion Golf Club. Hogan continued to realize what remains perhaps one of the greatest sporting exploits, namely to gain over only one leg validates twelve new titles, including six major before taking its retirement. Ben Hogan be entitled even to a ticker-slap parades with New York on his return of Carnoustie in 1953, the only time where he played (and gained), the British Open.

He was member of two American teams of the Ryder Cup, in 1947 and 1951, and was captain of the team three times, in 1947, 1949 as in 1967 where he made hear that he had led the “twelve best golfeurs of the world” to play in competition. The same expression was to be used by the American Captain Raymond Floyd at the time of Ryder Cup 1989, although this time the American team was overcome by the European team on the course of the Belfry.

Hogan gained the Trophée Vardon which rewards the best average score over one season three times: 1940, 1941 and 1948. In 1959, it gained the Hickok Belt which rewards the best professional athlete for the year in the United States.

Thereafter, it was to found a manufacture of canes of golf (today under the control of Callaway Golf Company) and its clubs, at least those which bear its name, its always used nowadays. Contrary to the large players of the the Sixties and 70, Ben Hogan never played in the Senior Golf Turn, circuit which was not created that at the time it had largely exceeded the sixty years age.

He was established in the World Golf Hall off Famed in 1974. In 1974, one allotted to him the Bob Jones Award, the highest distinction granted by the United States Golf Association in recognition of his exemplary sportivity. It was to die with Fort Worth, in the State of the Texas.

Victories over the PGA Turn

Ben Hogan gained not less than 64 victories over the PGA Tour between 1938 and 1959. Most remarkable are its nine victories in the major tournaments which break up as follows:

Masters: 1951 and 1953 US Open: 1948,1950,1951 and 1953 Open British: 1953 PGA Championship : 1946 and 1948

Trivia

Ben Hogan forever successful a Hole-in-a (hole-in-one) in competition. Sharon Ray, who was a long time her secretary, claims that Hogan did not make any more when he played for his pleasure. The author Jim Dodson says that Hogan ceased aiming at the flag because at its beginnings, the masts were made out of wood of hickory so that when it touched them, the ball rebounded apart from the green. Moreover, the masts were then considerably thicker at the time of Hogan what made them less likely to drop the ball at the bottom from the hole when they were in place.
Whereas it was nine years old, his/her Chester father committed suicide. According to certain accounts, Chester made the act in the presence of his/her son, which some (including its biographer James Dodson) regarded as the reason of the introverted character of which it was to be proof of the years later.
Although he tells himself that he had been born left-handed, Hogan wrote right hand, and clearly denied this history in an interview given in 1987.

See too

References

External bonds

Official site of Ben Hogan
Statistical in career of Ben Hogan
Biography of Ben Hogan on Golf Legends

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