Equipment
A visit to Ben Hogan Golf
The Ben Hogan Golf headquarters are in a relaxed old warehouse about 10 minutes south of downtown Fort Worth. The parking lot sits adjacent to an open field of unkempt grass, and the Ben Hogan logo hangs proudly above the door, unseen by most.
All of that is by design.
The Ben Hogan Golf Equipment Company originally started in 1953, but in September of 2017, it was reborn. This time with a completely different business model and an eye for saving customers money. That means lower overhead and cutting out the retail middle man.
“Our product is better than most and it’s less expensive than most. That’s because of our direct to consumer business model,” says Scott White, Ben Hogan Golf’s President and CEO.
Customers who want to play Ben Hogan irons, hybrids, or wedges can simply create a custom set online at benhogangolf.com. No need to pay markup costs buying at your local pro shop or golf mega store. The direct-to-consumer model keeps costs down and allows the player to have a custom set of forged irons for much less of the cost of a comparable set. And the clubs are built just for you. Just send in your specs and the clubs are out the door and headed your way in five to 10 business days.
Steve Dreyer, Director of Manufacturing, started with the company in 1985. He knew Mr. Hogan personally and has been a part of the company’s many evolutions. “I’ve seen many transitions. No doubt we are back to what Mr. Hogan wanted,” Dreyer says. “What Mr. Hogan stood for — he stood for a fine quality, built right, forged iron, built one set at a time.”
And if you want to give these clubs a try before pulling the trigger, that’s no problem. The company offers a 14-day, two-club demo program to help you feel comfortable with your purchase. That is also all organized online through the website. Customers can select the clubs they are interested in, pay twenty dollars for shipping, and they’ll soon get two irons in the mail.
Currently, Ben Hogan Golf offers three different custom built iron sets ranging from $575 to $770 per set, as well as utility irons, wedges and hybrids. The website also offers a wide array of bags, hats, and accessories, all sporting the legendary Hogan signature logo.
The new business model is working. Clubs are flying out of the factory and being shipped all over the world. As a response to overseas demand, the demo club program is setting up a new location in the United Kingdom so European players will be able to try these clubs out before purchasing as well. It seems consumers are falling in love with Ben Hogan irons again.
That wasn’t always the case. Before this resurgence, the company was floundering in and out of bankruptcy. “We were using the same playbook as every other original equipment manufacturer,” White said. “We were in retail. We had a sales force. It was an expensive proposition and we just found that we can’t keep doing it this way.”
In 2017, the company decided they needed a different strategic plan, so they began working towards a transition of sorts. All options were on the table, including permanent closure of the company. But while that was happening, revenue was still needed to keep the doors open and the lights on.
“So we went to our database and contacted everyone who had purchased Ben Hogan products in the previous two years,” White said. “We told them we were going through a reorganization and are pulling out of retail. But you are loyal to us so if you want to buy our equipment directly, we will sell it to you at basically wholesale pricing.”
The response was overwhelming. The company couldn’t keep up. There was no website or organizational process in place yet. Just customers who wanted Ben Hogan clubs at lower prices, calling on the phone. So White, Dreyer, and Tyler Brewton, Director of Brand and Product Marketing, decided there must be something to this factory direct thing. “We have a premium product and no one else in the golf industry is doing what we are doing from the equipment side,” Brewton said. “We are making premium golf equipment and we sell it with no retail markups.”
“It’s the great Ben Hogan product you know and love. Now there is no middleman,” explained White. “There’s no markup. You buy it at roughly half the cost of comparable product at retail. We have only been at it for 18 months but it has really resonated.”
Perhaps the most important piece to the equation, however, is the ever-present aura of Mr. Hogan. Walking around the no frills factory warehouse, it is impossible to not feel his presence. His signature is on every piece of equipment and photos of his famous swing hang on the walls. Even one of his old wooden office chairs sits in the corner of the break room.
“We are very conscious of the fact that it is his name on the bag. His name on the clubs. We walk around here and see his signature and his photos every day and think we need to keep making this guy proud,” White said.
And the dedication to excellence that Mr. Hogan was famous for is still going strong in Texas. “Mr. Hogan was a businessman,” said Dreyer. “And the product leaving this building is nothing but the best. Because that is what Mr. Hogan expected. It had to be the best.”
Where the company will go from here remains to be seen. “Right now we are forged irons and wedges,” said White. “We are always going to be a niche brand that appeals first and foremost to the more accomplished players. That is kind of what the Ben Hogan brand is known for. But we are going to get into other product categories which will fuel growth.”
The future looks bright in Fort Worth.
Mr. Hogan would be proud.
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- Kevin Tway what’s in the bag accurate as of the Wells Fargo Championship. More photos from the event here.
Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X
3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 80 TX
5-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 90 TX
Irons: Wilson Staff Utility (2), Titleist T100 (4-9)
Shafts: Mitsubishi MMT 100 TX (2), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (4-9)
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (48-10F @47, 52-12F @51, 56-14F), SM7 (60-10S)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (48-56), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 (60)
Putter: Scotty Cameron T-5 Proto
Grip: Scotty Cameron Black Baby T
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Plus4
More photos of Kevin Tway’s WITB in the forums.
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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article.
The timing of Lowry’s putter changeup was curious: Was he just using a Spider putter because he was paired with McIlroy, who’s been using a Spider Tour X head throughout 2024? Was Lowry just being festive because it’s the Zurich Classic, and he wanted to match his teammate? Did McIlroy let Lowry try his putter, and he liked it so much he actually switched into it?
Well, as it turns out, McIlroy’s only influence was inspiring Lowry to make more putts.
When asked if McIlroy had an influence on the putter switch, Lowry had this to say: “No, it’s actually a different putter than what he uses. Maybe there was more pressure there because I needed to hole some more putts if we wanted to win,” he said with a laugh.
To Lowry’s point, McIlroy plays the Tour X model, whereas Lowry switched into the Tour Z model, which has a sleeker shape in comparison, and the two sole weights of the club are more towards the face.
Lowry’s Spider Tour Z has a white True Path Alignment channel on the crown of his putter, which is reminiscent of Lowry’s former 2-ball designs, thus helping to provide a comfort factor despite the departure from his norm. Instead of a double-bend hosel, which Lowry used in his 2-ball putters, his new Spider Tour Z is designed with a short slant neck.
“I’ve been struggling on the greens, and I just needed something with a fresh look,” Lowry told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship. “It has a different neck on it, as well, so it moves a bit differently, but it’s similar. It has a white line on the back of it [like my 2-ball], and it’s a mallet style. So it’s not too drastic of a change.
“I just picked it up on the putting green and I liked the look of it, so I was like, ‘Let’s give it a go.’”
Read the rest of the piece over at PGATour.com.
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Equipment
Webb Simpson equipment Q&A: Titleist’s new 2-wood, 680 blade irons, and switching to a broomstick Jailbird
With seven career wins on the PGA Tour, including a U.S. Open victory, Webb Simpson is a certified veteran on the course. But he’s also a certified veteran in the equipment world, too. He’s a gearhead who truly knows his stuff, and he’s even worked closely with Titleist on making his own custom 682.WS irons.
On Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship, I caught up with Simpson to hear about his experience with Titleist’s new prototype 2-wood, how Titleist’s 680 Forged irons from 2003 ended up back in his bag, and why he’s switching into an Odyssey Ai-One Jailbird Cruiser broomstick putter this week for the first time.
Click here to read our full story about Simpson’s putter switch on PGATOUR.com’s Equipment Report, or continue reading below for my full Q&A with Simpson at Quail Hollow Club on Wednesday.
See Webb Simpson’s full WITB from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship here
GolfWRX: It seems like you’ve been a little all over the place with your irons in the past six months or so, and now going back to the 680’s. Is that just a comfort thing? What’s been going on with the irons?
Webb Simpson: Titleist has been so great at working with me, and R&D, on trying to get an iron that kind of modernizes the 680. And so the 682.WS took the T100 grooves, but kinda took the look and the bulk and the build of the 680’s into one club. They’re beautiful, and awesome looking. I just never hit them that well for a consistent period of time. It was probably me, but then I went to T100’s and loved them. I loved the spin, the trajectory, the yardage, but again, I never went on good runs. Going through the ground, I couldn’t feel the club as well as with the blade. So last week, I’m like, ‘Alright. I’m gonna go back more for…comfort, and see if I can get on a nice little run of ball striking.’
So that’s why I went back.
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OK, that makes sense. I know you had done some 2-wood testing recently. Is that in the bag right now?
It’s like day-by-day. I used it at Hilton Head every day. Valero, I used it one round. And this week, me and my caddie will do the book every morning, and if it’s a day where we think we need it, we’ll just put it in and take the 3-wood out. I love it because it’s a super simple swap. Like, it doesn’t really change much.
Yeah, can you tell me about that club? I mean, we don’t really know anything about it yet. You know? I haven’t hit it or anything, obviously.
It has grooves like a 3-wood. Spin is perfect. And it’s honestly, like, everything is in the middle of a 3-wood and driver number. Trajectory, spin, carry, all of it. So, a Hilton Head golf course is almost too easy to talk about because, you know, there, so many holes are driver 3-wood.
Valero, our thinking was we had two par-5’s into the wind, and we knew that it would take two great shots to get there in two. So instead of hitting driver-driver, we just put it in. And I used it on those holes.
Hilton was a little easier because it was off-the-tee kind of questions. But Colonial will be a golf course where, you know, there’s a lot of driver or 3-woods. It’s kind of like a backup putter or driver for me now. I’ll bring it to every tournament.
So it’s, like, in your locker right now, probably?
Well, it would be. It’s in my house [because Webb lives near by Quail Hollow Club, and is a member at the course.] It’s in the garage.
Oh, yeah, that’s right. Do you know what holes you might use it out here if it goes in play?
Potentially 15, depending on the wind. Second shot on 10. Could be 14 off the tee. The chances here are pretty low (that he’ll use the 2-wood). But, like, Greensboro would be an awesome club all day. I’m trying to think of any other golf courses.
There’s plenty that it’ll be a nice weapon to have.
It’s interesting, the wave of 2-woods and mini drivers. Like, it’s just really taken off on Tour, and all the companies have seemed to embrace it.
Yeah. The thing I had to learn, it took me, like, at least a week to learn about it is you gotta tee it up lower than you think. I kept teeing it up too high. You need it low, like barely higher than a 3-wood. And that was where I got optimal spin and carry. If you tee it up too high, you just don’t get as much spin and lose distance, I don’t know if that’s just a mini driver thing.
And you obviously have a Jailbird putter this week. What spurred that on?
Inconsistent putting. I’m stubborn in a lot of ways when it comes to my equipment, but I have to be open minded – I just hadn’t putted consistently well in a while. And I’m like, ‘Man, I feel my ball-striking coming along. Like I feel better; for real, better.’
If I can just get something in my hands that I’m consistent with. Being on Tour, you see it every year, guys get on little runs. I can put together four to five tournaments where I’m all the sudden back in the majors, or in the FedExCup Playoffs. You can turn things around quick out here. I’m like, ‘Man, whatever’s going to get me there, great.’
My caddie, David Cook, caddied for Akshay at the Houston Open and he putted beautifully. Then, I watched Akshay on TV at Valero, and he putted beautifully. And, I’m like, ‘I’m just going to try it.’
I’ve never tried it for more than a putt or two, and I just ordered what Akshay uses. It was pretty awkward at first, but the more I used it, the more I’m like, ‘Man, it’s pretty easy.’ And a buddy of mine who’s a rep out here, John Tyler Griffin, he helped me with some setup stuff. And he said at Hilton Head, he wasn’t putting well, then tried it, and now he makes everything. He was very confident. So I’m like, ‘Alright, I’ll try it.’”
And you’re going with it this week?
Hundred percent.
Alright, I love it. Thank you, I always love talking gear with you. Play well this week.
Thanks, man.
See Webb Simpson’s full WITB from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship here
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Ray F
May 10, 2019 at 6:44 pm
Just received my PTx Pro irons and I’m testing the wedges through the trial program. Selected my shaft through extensive trials with similar irons and so far numbers look solid on launch monitor.
Ordering was a breeze and all of my questions were answered.
Hopefully I’ll be able to do a trial on the new woods coming out.
Very happy
234234
Mar 2, 2019 at 12:25 am
One thing I liked about Hogans irons is they stamp the #of the iron, instead they stamp the loft on the sole. Makes so much sense. Nowadays every manufactures are pulling lofts from long and short irons and make #7 stronger. The result is 3′ gaps in long irons, and 5′ or more gaps in short irons. I don’t care about #7 being 30′ or 28′, I just don’t like the gaps getting double between long and short irons.
234234
Mar 2, 2019 at 12:26 am
is they don’t(*) stamp the #of the iron
Billy
Mar 1, 2019 at 8:10 pm
Give it a year at most, the company will file for bankruptcy.
Vickie
Mar 2, 2019 at 1:11 pm
That’s ugly !!!! Steve I wish y’all the best of luck. Mr. Hogan would be proud.
Bob
Mar 2, 2019 at 2:12 pm
Wrong already, it’s been 2 years and no bankruptcy in sight.
Brad
Mar 1, 2019 at 4:47 pm
The product looks good, but customer service at Hogan Golf is the big problem. The ones I have spoken to are not exactly friendly or helpful. Either they are just not very nice people, or there must be a lot of stress inside that company keeping everyone on edge.
Ben Hogan
Mar 1, 2019 at 2:25 pm
Had a very very negative experience with the customer relations department. Turned me off of the new Hogans immediately. That’s the last time I will entertain of using Hogan equipment. The Apex Edge Pro’s were one of my favorite irons years ago
Steve Buchanan
Mar 1, 2019 at 1:36 pm
Wrong. Great clubs and beautiful as well. Performance and feel are exceptional. I love my new set and Ric Shiels, who tests everything on the market loves them as well. I hate the negative comments from people who have no clue.
DL
Mar 1, 2019 at 1:29 pm
I like what they have done with the company. I have the Ptx and Edge iron sets. The quality and performance has been excellent and they are reasonably priced. Only concern is fitting. Less informed consumers could use some help in ordering a set that is built for their particular golf swing.
Thomas Hertwig
Mar 1, 2019 at 1:17 pm
all in all just an assembly warehouse for heads made in China…..most steel shafts are not available so it’s really no big deal….clubs flying out the warehouse, I don’t think so just look at the building…
Matt
Mar 1, 2019 at 1:14 pm
Would be nice if they offered just the heads so consumers can put the shafts they want in them.
Fitz
Mar 1, 2019 at 1:14 pm
Without Terry Koehler Hogan has the same cache as the Spalding, Black Knight, Walter Hagen for me.
A Vendor
Mar 1, 2019 at 12:56 pm
Give me a break. These are the guys who jumped head first into debt, had to declare bankruptcy, and continue to use assets they didn’t pay for. I’m sure Mr Hogan would be proud.
bonifacj
Mar 1, 2019 at 12:01 pm
Continued success to Ben Hogan Golf. Product offerings look great.
gh
Mar 1, 2019 at 11:45 am
Sadly, Mr. Hogan would not be proud of what has happened to his golf club business. Ben Hogan Golf will never be more than a failed vision of what used to be.
Douglas J Hansen, PGA
Mar 1, 2019 at 2:37 pm
I believe Mr. Hogan would be very upset at eliminating the PGA Professional from promoting and fitting clubs that bear his name. When I met Mr. Hogan in 1989 at the gathering of Hogan Staff professionals, Mr. Hogan described himself as a “golf professional” – not a “professional golfer” – which I took as quite the compliment. A PGA Member right up to his passing, Mr. Hogan knew the importance of what it is we do.
Even though I’m with PING, I bleed Hogan red, white & blue – always have – always will.
The dude
Mar 3, 2019 at 3:31 am
Cringeworthy post
Douglas J Hansen, PGA
Mar 8, 2019 at 4:35 pm
What has happen to the Ben Hogan brand IS “cringeworthy”, Dude.