MEMORIES: “It’s Different with Ben Hogan”
By Bobby Greenwood, PGA
During my seven years on Tour, I was fortunate to play golf with some of the icons of the game. Great players such as Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Cary Middlecoff, Lee Trevino, Chi-Chi Rodriguez, Byron Nelson and oh yes… Jack Nicklaus.
But I must say, it was quite different when I played with Ben Hogan at the Westchester Country Club in Rhy, New York. By most accounts, Ben Hogan was the best golfer of his era and still stands as one of the greatest of all time. But I could also see why Hogan is widely acknowledged as arguably the greatest ball striker golf has ever known!
In Scotland, Hogan was known as “The Wee Ice Man”, or, in some versions, “Wee Ice Mon,” a moniker earned during his famous British Open victory at Carnoustie in 1953. It is a reference to his steely and seemingly nerveless demeanor. Hogan rarely spoke during competition; we didn’t talk too much during our round. He was a man of few words. He mostly just said “your away.”
Like so many others, I was in awe of the Wee Iceman, the Hawk, yes, Bantam Ben was indeed special… a true icon. At 5 ft. 8½ in. tall and 145 lbs., he also was a very long hitter!
I first came in contact with Ben Hogan while I was playing college golf at North Texas State University in Denton, Texas. I would hitch a ride from Denton to Ft. Worth just to see Hogan practice at his home course Shady Oaks Country Club.
I would stay perhaps fifty yards away and lean up against a tree. Each day I would move a little closer. After several trips I got within thirty or forty yards. Hogan would hit a bag of balls, stop and smoke a cigarette, and look at me. We would nod at each other, but that was about it. I did this several times and one day, he actually asked/told me to ride in his cart and ride over to the practice bunker. That was my first introduction to Hogan.
Let me tell you why I became so interested in learning from Ben Hogan and why is he considered one of the greatest players in the history of the game. During Hogan’s prime years of 1938 through 1959, he won 63 professional golf tournaments despite his career being interrupted by World War II and a near-fatal car accident. Incidentally… these were the first 21 years of my life.
One year while I was at college, the Colonial National Invitational came to Ft. Worth and I decided to hitchhike to Ft. Worth and watch the tournament. I arrived late afternoon, spent the night in the bus station (that’s another story). The next morning, I arrived at Colonial Country Club very early… I walked in with the caddies and volunteers. Happened to pick up a large Marshal Hat and was able to walk down the middle of the fairway with Hogan and Mike Souchak for 18 holes! Looking back, it is amazing what a young boy will do in order to learn the game of golf. Much too dangerous in this day and age.
I later went to qualifying school and tied Johnny Miller for third place, earning a spot on the PGA Tour in 1969. We were playing for only 8 cards that year!
In my first year as a tour player, I was selected as the “Champions’ Choice” to play the Colonial National Invitational at Fort Worth. The Colonial Country Club was known as Hogan’s Alley because Ben Hogan had won 5 times at Colonial. The “Champions’ Choice” is the rookie they think is going to be a great player. I guess I’m the only Champions’ Choice that never won a major. I wish Ben had given me a lesson instead of a set of woods…
In 1971, our paths crossed once again. I’m on the first tee at the Westchester Golf Classic in Rye, New York with Hal Underwood. We’re getting ready to play a practice round and Ben Hogan walks up and asks to join us. That was the last tournament Hogan ever played in on the PGA Tour.
Ben said that the shafts in my woods were too limber and he told me to hit his driver off the 18th tee. As I addressed the ball, I could see that he was motioning to the large crowd that was following that I would hit his driver to the right. Naturally, trying to hit a good shot, I adjusted my grip and hit a drive down the middle with his x-stiff driver. The next week I received a set of woods in the mail from Ben Hogan… (Apex 5 shafts run through, cord grips with a large string on the underside) just like his personal clubs.
The word got out and my fellow PGA Tour players started showing up wanting to hit Ben’s clubs. I lost the driver and 3-wood to the players and I later sent the 4-wood to Carl Lohren who loved Hogan as much as I did.
Ben Hogan is one of only five players to have won all four majors: the Masters Tournament, The British Open Championship (despite only playing once), the U.S. Open, and the PGA Championship. The other four are Nicklaus, Woods, Player, and Gene Sarazen. Jack Nicklaus once said: “Hogan is easily the best that I have ever seen hit shots.”
Consider this: in 1945, Hogan set a PGA record for a 72-hole event at the Portland Open Invitational by shooting 27-under-par. And in 1946, he won 13 PGA Tour events and he won 10 in 1948!
The following year, driving home to Fort Worth after a Monday playoff loss at the 1949 Phoenix Open, Hogan and his wife Valerie survived a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus.
This accident left Hogan, age 36, with a double-fracture of the pelvis, a fractured collar bone, a left ankle fracture, a chipped rib, and near-fatal blood clots: he would suffer lifelong circulation problems and other physical limitations. His doctors said he might never walk again, let alone play golf competitively. He left the El Paso hospital two months after the accident, and returned to Fort Worth by train.
It is important to know that the majority of his putting problems developed after his 1949 car accident, which nearly blinded his left eye and impaired his depth perception.
Let’s compare golfing’s greatest triumvirate, namely Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and Sam Snead. These three men had strong character traits and when we played; I found each to have unusual determination and focus. They too were great competitors along with being gifted athletes.
I met an aging Nelson at the 1963 Texas Cup Team Matches in Dallas. I was picked to play on the prestigious 10-player Texas Cup team where the top 10 amateurs play against 10 PGA Tour pros from Texas.
This was my senior year at North Texas State, as a First Team NCAA All-American, I was selected to take on Nelson, who was the captain of the professional team. At 51 years old, Nelson was way past his prime, but here is the man who holds the record for winning 11 consecutive tournaments on the PGA Tour. However today, at 83 years of age, I can look back and see that 51 is not that old. Nelson shot a 68 that day! I made a birdie on the last hole to beat Byron 1-up. That evening we went to Byron Nelson’s ranch in Roanoke, Texas for a lavish buffet, presentation of prizes and speeches from several Texas dignitaries and the PGA Tour pros.
I must say, Byron Nelson, even at 51, was the most intense player I have ever played against! No wonder he won 11 tournaments in a row.
I also played a match against Snead. I, at the age of 53, was coming off a win at the Tennessee Senior PGA Championship and a fourth-place showing in the Senior PGA National Championship at Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. We faced each other in an exhibition match at the Sam Snead Pro Celebrity tournament in Nashville. I thought my chances were pretty good against an aging Snead who was 79 at the time. Turns out, I was wrong. Sam was indeed a physical specimen. He had a lot of fire and a temper to go with it. He reminded me of the great Tommy Bolt.
Sam drove it better than me, hit better iron shots, his chipping was excellent and he was even a better putter than me. He beat me 2-and-1. It was like Sam, the old thoroughbred racing against a young mule. I told him “Sam, I’ll try you again when you are 90.”
Snead, Nelson and Hogan combined for 198 wins on the PGA Tour, including 21 major championships… but only one had charisma.
NOTES:
Ben Hogan’s early years were very difficult. He dropped out of Central High School during the final semester of his senior year to turn pro at the age of 17. Ben landed a low paying club job in 1930; met Valerie Fox in Sunday school in 1932; and they married in 1935.
According to his PGA Tour profile, Hogan earned just $332,516 in official PGA events, however, a 2021 study concluded that Hogan’s tournament performances could have earned him $91.8M if he had played in the modern era.