GOLF'S ALL TIME, PREEMINENT BADASS!! Move over Jack and Tiger. Ben Hogan faced more obstacles than Dickens' famous character Oliver Twist. His estranged father shot himself in an adjacent room when he was just 10 years old. He then sold newspapers til midnight, before uncovering his lifelong obsession with the game of golf. As a caddy Hogan slept in the bunkers over a pile of newspapers to be the first caddy out in the morning. He quit school at 17 to take a shot at professional golf. Again and again, Hogan returned home broke and discouraged. But, never broken!! After marrying Valerie Fox, it took him ten years to finally win on tour. Its a fact that Hogan was down to less than $100 when he and Valerie traveled to Oakland for one last shot. Hogan awoke to see his car on a block with two tires missing!! He hitched a ride with Byron Nelson to the course. On his last fumbling grasp, Hogan won $285 to remain on tour and launch a dizzying ascent to the top. From 1946-48 Hogan won 36 of 99 tournaments he entered!! He was 34 years of age when he finally won a major. Hogan then won nine majors in a seven year period. Six of them after a catastrophic accident that should have killed him!! This is what separates Ben Hogan from every champion in the grand game. Give Jack or Tiger the same pitfalls and they probably would have been shoved to the wayside. Tiger's comeback was a stroll at a County Fair compared to the odyssey of William Ben Hogan. The greatest and grittiest champion the game has ever produced. BAR NONE.
He’s the best ball striker of all time. Try getting some old 1940s balls and clubs and see how you do. He had to have the best mental approach in order to be the best.
I agree 1000 percent!! The fabulous golf writer Al Barkow, in his wonderful book "Golf's Golden Grind," noted that when comparing players, you must consider the milieu, the environment they came from. Ben Hogan's adolescent environment was like an "asphalt jungle." Hogan would have fit neatly into a Dickens novel with Oliver Twist, Fagin, and The Artful Dodger!! To sum it up, it isn't remarkable enough that Hogan "failed miserably then succeeded beyond imagining," in the words of his biographer Curt Sampson. It's that he succeeded beyond imagining under conditions that were beyond imagining!! No other golfer can match the life story of Hogan or achieved as much under what he endured. Of that, I am unequivocally sure. Ben Hogan, the true GOAT OF GOLF.
@@benjaminpease5297 Doesn’t matter.. Much harder to do something when there isn’t a well laid path in front of you.. In that sense Tiger had it very easy compared to Ben Hogan, and Tiger IMHO is ranked #4 on the All-time list right behind Hogan..
some learn and become good, some are superb whatever technique or equipment they use...Hogan was obviously one. Each of the legends does it differently and with different equipment.
People need to realize that Hogan missed tournaments due to WW2 and of course his accident. Without those he may have set records that equal to or surpass Jack and Tiger.
I actually think Ben was as good as anyone else that people like to refer as the GOAT. That he could've been the dominant player for the 3.5 years from 1946 to halfway thru 1949 (before the accident) and amassed an insane record in that period. That he could have kept a pistol from his noggin or kept himself from jumping off a bridge, after his father committed suicide, and that he had to fight literally and figuratively for even a crumb of food (he actually was starving, mostly in the early years of trying to make the tour). He "dug out of the [weedy, nasty] ground" the most efficient accurate swing ever.
Golf is a game which has always been subject to technology. Tech advances have always lowered scores. The U.S. Open is the national golf championship of the USA. It is the oldest golf competition in America & every year is played in June on a different course. NOTE: Players were not allowed to clean the ball on the green until 1960. Therefore, consider the following: From 1934 to 1961 Ben Hogan played in 21 Opens. He finished with a 72 hole score under 290 in 15 of those for a .714% & he won 5X including the 1942 Hale America National Open (substitute for the cancelled Open due to WW2) in which there was local & sectional qualifying & after Hogan won it he was given a medal which looked just like his other ones. From 1960 to 1986 Jack Nicklaus played in 27 Opens & he finished under 290 in 18 of them for a .667% & he won 4X. From 1997 to 2020 Tiger Woods played in 20 Opens & finished under 290 in 13 of them for a .650% & he won 3X. It also must be pointed out that Hogan finished top ten in 16 consecutive US Open attempts (1940-60) & the longest such streak by anyone else is still 7.
his secret was that he started his downswing by pressing the index finger side of his left hand towards the thumb pad of his right hand. You can see him do it in the swing @13.15
There was another with no disrespect intended.....His name was/is Trevino but: *Did it playing the tour for only 13 years. 1. He grew up poorer. 2. Met his dad once. 3. Lost is fortune 2x 4. Never played a tournament until the Army 5. Hit by lightning.
Ben has Charisma? Ok, Hogan was a great golfer, but had few close friends and pretty much kept to himself while playing. He also didn’t do many interviews. So he wasn’t charismatic
