[size=150]http://www.benhoganmuseum.org/[/size]
I was in the Dallas / Fort Worth area this week, and had some time to kill. I decided to leave attempts to visit ‘Colonial’ and ‘Shady Oaks’ for future trips to the area, and chose to visit the Ben Hogan Museum, in his birth-place: Dublin-TX.
It was about a 2 hour drive one way, part interstate, part rural highway and parts of it through smaller roads through small towns. A bit of a different landscape, when compared to home, and therefore the drive was interesting enough! And the trip turned out to be well worth the drive.
There was no admission charge, and I got a lot more than I paid for (they did accept donations). The museum is relatively new (it opened last year, one year ahead of Hogan’s 100th birthday), is not especially large (it consists of essentially one large room, the designer’s rendering shown above gives the right idea), it is very nicely put together, and still being actively improved upon, with new acquisitions still arriving with regularity, so I will be back.
I was in very good hands during my visit, and so is the museum. I was the only ‘customer’, and my host was a wonderful woman, very active in the local community I think, on the board of directors of the museum, and - while not a golfer herself - superbly enthusiastic and very knowledgeable about Hogan and everything on display in the museum. I spent the whole time listening and talking to her, while I was being shown the most interesting of the items on display. This included a lot of nice Hogan family and golf pictures I had not seen before, a display about his father’s blacksmith shop, some displays about the Hogan-Slam (1953), a display on some local golf history, a loft-and-lie machine from the Hogan factory, a sampling of Hogan-branded clubs, and some smaller stuff as well. (My list is not meant to be exhaustive.) There wasn’t one particular item that ‘wowed’ me, but I thought the collection as a whole was great. And the personalized tour was priceless. Thank you very much!
Unfortunately my visit to the museum could only last for an hour and a bit, before my free time was running out and I had to rush back. My trip left me with a very good memory though.
PS I hope this is the correct sub-forum for the above post. If not, feel free to move it. Thank you!