Opinion & Analysis

Ben Hogan: The myths, the man

Published

9 years ago

May 9, 2015

In the world of books devoted to the great Ben Hogan, a few stand above the rest. James Dodson’s Ben Hogan: An American Life, Curt Sampson’s Hogan, Jody Vasquez’s Afternoons with Mr. Hogan, and Kris Tschetter’s Mr. Hogan: The Man I Knew all fit together to form the most complete portrait of the often misunderstood and mischaracterized golfing legend.

Tim Scott has added an entry to the canon of Hogan texts with Ben Hogan: The Myths Everyone Knows, The Man No One Knew.

Scott worked worked at the Ben Hogan Company from 1969 to 1982, the last eight years as the Vice President of Sales & Marketing. He had the opportunity to know and work with Ben Hogan personally. More importantly for the purposes of his book, however, he had access to Mr. Hogan’s network of close friends, employees of the golf equipment company, and members at Ben Hogan’s home course in his later years, Shady Oaks.

He has organized a compendium of brilliant Hogan anecdotes in his new book, many of which even the most dedicated of Hogan of aficionados will be hearing for the first time.

I spoke with Mr. Scott by phone about meeting and working for Ben Hogan, what inspired a former executive to put pen to paper, and what the process of collecting some of the most revealing Hogan episodes ever contained in a text was like.

B.A.: What was the first time you met Ben Hogan like?

T.S.: The first time I met him, I had just gone to work for AMF. I was on a year training program up in Connecticut in the sports products group. The Hogan company was part of that. I came to Ft. Worth…was taken into Mr. Hogan’s office and introduced…I was very intimidated. Of course, I knew who Mr. Hogan was. I didn’t know much about his image at that time, so I didn’t have any preconceived notions. Certainly, at that time, he was the greatest golfer ever.

He had a good sense of humor. I was a junior member at Shady Oaks [where Hogan played]. I was playing golf over there one Saturday…Hogan walked up and asked if he could join us.

In 1969, Hogan had surgery on his shoulder, so he wasn’t playing in the company golf tournament. He was driving around, saying hello to everybody and watching us play. I was about to tee off. There about six feet away from my ball was the wheel of a cart…in it was Mr. Hogan. I was 25 years old at the time. I had played basketball, so I was in pretty good condition. If I hadn’t been 25 and in real good physical condition, I’d have thought I was having a heart attack. I actually don’t know how I swung the golf club. I was normally a slicer…I hit a duck hook.

I was never comfortable enough to ask him to play golf, but he asked me to play about a half-a-dozen times. That broke down some of the walls I’d kind of self imposed because of his stature.

At this point, after the AMF sale, was he coming into the office every day?

He sold his company to AMF in 1960. I joined the company in 1969. He came into the office every day. He had to be told when it was a holiday. He came in every day and he stayed until about 12 or 1 o’clock. He would go to Shady Oaks in the afternoon and hit balls.

He’d eat lunch before he hit balls…he’d play cards…talk with his friends. When he was hitting balls, he was usually trying something new or different or testing something. He wasn’t just out there hitting for fun…he had a purpose.

Ben Hogan watches Tim Scott swing.

What was his office like?

He had a big office. He had two or three chairs in his office for people. Usually, when he wanted to talk, he invited us to his office to talk. He had a good size desk. He had a picture…he and Clifford Roberts, President Eisenhower…and I don’t know if the fourth was Byron Nelson, but they were sitting on a bench at Augusta.

What was the genesis of wanting to set the record straight, if you will, regarding Mr. Hogan and how did that lead into the book?

Over time, as I got to know him better, and played golf at Shady Oaks and talked with people who knew him there, what I was hearing didn’t mesh with what I was seeing personally and what these other people were communicating to me.

I suggested that he write an autobiography, and that people would really enjoy it…and maybe feel differently toward him. He wasn’t interested.

Did you find him to be very formal?

We had a number of casual conversations. At the sales meetings, he’d stand around talking to people. People would ask, like, what are your favorite golf courses and he’d be happy to talk about that.

One thing he was very guarded about…was that his father committed suicide. From what I understand, he was in the room when his father shot himself.

He and Gary Player had a conversation, I think it was at Westchester…Player said they were standing on the 18th tee. Hogan said, and this was toward the end of his career, “I wouldn’t want to be a professional coming in today because there’s no privacy.”

And if you quoted him, he wanted it quoted exactly right. There were a number of instances where they [reporters] took things and kind of twisted them a little bit…so he just said, “The hell with them.”

So you don’t think he’d be comfortable with the climate of professional golf today?

The media is very intrusive into the private lives of golfers now. They have no problem…asking you questions that…you really don’t want to deal with.

Just recently, you had these NCAA coaches trying to get ready for a tournament and there getting asked questions about this Indiana law. That’s not something that Hogan would want to participate in. It’s not that he didn’t have an opinion…but I guess that he felt that his opinion was his opinion and everybody is entitled to their own opinion.

Indeed. I can’t imagine him maintaining a Twitter presence or being stalked by the paparazzi comfortably…

(Laughing) No. That just doesn’t seem to mesh.

You talked a little about the origin of the book. So from there, that kind of compelled you to reach out to those who knew Mr. Hogan?

I’d finally heard enough of that stuff…eight or 10 years after I left the company. It made me mad. I thought, “This isn’t right.”

I once said to him, “I think it’d be great if you wrote your autobiography.” He said, “It’s too much work. I couldn’t do that.”

So he never did.

The thought crossed my mind, “If I don’t, who will?” I was in kind of a unique position: Being a member at Shady Oaks, being the Sales & Marketing Vice President, and my father died when I was six years old. And I didn’t know about his father, but he knew about mine. I don’t know whether he made compensation for me in that regard or what.

But he treated me very nicely.

And I was no writer, but between my two years at Amos Tuck Business School at Dartmouth, one of the marketing professors asked me to work for him that summer to write business cases for a textbook.

And I was in the marketing area so I did some writing. I thought, “What the heck? I write down my personal experiences with him and what I saw myself, and then talk to some people at the Hogan Company…”

I talked to some people at Shady Oaks that I knew. And then they would suggest, “You need to talk to so-and-so.”

So I talked to people he played golf with…Shelly Mayfield over at Brook Hollow, and Eldridge Miles, who I think at the time was at the Dallas Country Club.

Talking to all them, the same things kept coming from them that I was thinking. I thought, I got something here. This is a totally different side of Ben that, in his privacy, he chose not to make public.

For example, a lot of them saw his generosity that he did through other people on the condition that they never tell who it was that gave them the money or the gifts or whatever.

Ben-Hogan-FRONT

Very interesting. Tell me a little more about the book.

Well, it’s not a typical biography. There’s 47 pages of biography at the front for people who don’t know anything about Ben Hogan. The rest of it is anecdotes, true-life experiences of these people that they had with this man. And I kind of categorized them by different traits of his personality.

I’m not a writer, but the experiences that I’ve had, all those things, I said, “You’re in a pretty unique position, so put it together and see what happens.” It took me 21 years, but I got it done!

What was that process like for you?

As I look back on it, there was a significant learning process. Not about Ben Hogan necessarily, but about life in general.

One of the things I realized was that Ben Hogan was a very humble man. After he won the British Open somebody asked him how he won all these tournaments he said, “I couldn’t have done it without the Lord.”

I hope that he did it as an encouragement for those who have been seriously sick or broken in body as he once was.

I know that after the accident and the outpouring of concern and support he felt he was playing for something greater than himself. But I don’t think he’d ever have said that…

No he wouldn’t. You know, he’d write letters to people, people who’d been stricken with cancer or had been in some serious accident.

And he’d begin his letters…with, with your permission or something to let them know he didn’t want to interrupt their lives. The same thing with golf, he didn’t just walk up there and join our group…he asked first. He was very considerate of others.

But looking back on my life, and how I came to the Ben Hogan company, I came to the conclusion that I was supposed to write this book. [There have been] too many turns in the road, many of which I had nothing to do with — it began with my father passing away when I was six — too many things to call them coincidence.

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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s LIV Golf Singapore betting preview: Course specialist ready to thrive once again

Published

5 days ago

Apr 30, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

After another strong showing in Australia, LIV Golf will head to Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore looking to build off of what was undoubtedly their best event to date.

Sentosa Golf Club sits on the southern tip of Singapore and is one of the most beautiful courses in the world. The course is more than just incredible scenically; it was also rated 55th in Golf Digest’s top-100 courses in 2022-2023 and has been consistently regarded as one of the best courses in Asia. Prior to being part of the LIV rotation, the course hosted the Singapore Open every year since 2005.

Sentosa Golf Club is a par 71 measuring 7,406 yards. The course will require precise ball striking and some length off the tee. It’s possible to go low due to the pristine conditions, but there are also plenty of hazards and difficult spots on the course that can bring double bogey into play in a hurry. The Bermudagrass greens are perfectly manicured, and the course has spent millions on the sub-air system to keep the greens rolling fast. I spoke to Asian Tour player, Travis Smyth, who described the greens as “the best [he’s] ever played.”

Davis Love III, who competed in a Singapore Open in 2019, also gushed over the condition of the golf course.

“I love the greens. They are fabulous,” the 21-time PGA Tour winner said.

Love III also spoke about other aspects of the golf course.

“The greens are great; the fairways are perfect. It is a wonderful course, and it’s tricky off the tee.”

“It’s a long golf course, and you get some long iron shots. It takes somebody hitting it great to hit every green even though they are big.”

As Love III said, the course can be difficult off the tee due to the length of the course and the trouble looming around every corner. It will take a terrific ball striking week to win at Sentosa Golf Club.

In his pre-tournament press conference last season, Phil Mickelson echoed many of the same sentiments.

“To play Sentosa effectively, you’re going to have a lot of shots from 160 to 210, a lot of full 6-, 7-, 8-iron shots, and you need to hit those really well and you need to drive the ball well.”

Golfers who excel from tee to green and can dial in their longer irons will have a massive advantage this week.

Stat Leaders at LIV Golf Adelaide:

Fairways Hit

1.) Louis Oosthuizen

2.) Anirban Lahiri

3.) Jon Rahm

4.) Brendan Steele

5.) Cameron Tringale

Greens in Regulation

1.) Brooks Koepka

2.) Brendan Steele

3.) Dean Burmester

4.) Cameron Tringale

5.) Anirban Lahiri

Birdies Made

1.) Brendan Steele

2.) Dean Burmester

3.) Thomas Pieters

4.) Patrick Reed

5.) Carlos Ortiz

LIV Golf Individual Standings:

1.) Joaquin Niemann

2.) Jon Rahm

3.) Dean Burmester

4.) Louis Oosthuizen

5.) Abraham Ancer

LIV Golf Team Standings:

1.) Crushers

2.) Legion XIII

3.) Torque

4.) Stinger GC

5.) Ripper GC

LIV Golf Singapore Picks

Sergio Garcia +3000 (DraftKings)

Sergio Garcia is no stranger to Sentosa Golf Club. The Spaniard won the Singapore Open in 2018 by five strokes and lost in a playoff at LIV Singapore last year to scorching hot Talor Gooch. Looking at the course setup, it’s no surprise that a player like Sergio has played incredible golf here. He’s long off the tee and is one of the better long iron players in the world when he’s in form. Garcia is also statistically a much better putter on Bermudagrass than he is on other putting surfaces. He’s putt extremely well on Sentosa’s incredibly pure green complexes.

This season, Garcia has two runner-up finishes, both of them being playoff losses. Both El Camaleon and Doral are courses he’s had success at in his career. The Spaniard is a player who plays well at his tracks, and Sentosa is one of them. I believe Sergio will get himself in the mix this week. Hopefully the third time is a charm in Singapore.

Paul Casey +3300 (FanDuel)

Paul Casey is in the midst of one of his best seasons in the five years or so. The results recently have been up and down, but he’s shown that when he’s on a golf course that suits his game, he’s amongst the contenders.

This season, Casey has finishes of T5 (LIV Las Vegas), T2 (LIV Hong Kong), and a 6th at the Singapore Classic on the DP World Tour. At his best, the Englishman is one of the best long iron players in the world, which makes him a strong fit for Sentosa. Despite being in poor form last season, he was able to fire a Sunday 63, which shows he can low here at the course.

It’s been three years since Casey has won a tournament (Omega Dubai Desert Classic in 2021), but he’s been one of the top players on LIV this season and I think he can get it done at some point this season.

Mito Pereira +5000 (Bet365)

Since Mito Pereira’s unfortunate demise at the 2022 PGA Championship, he’s been extremely inconsistent. However, over the past few months, the Chilean has played well on the International Series as well as his most recent LIV start. Mito finished 8th at LIV Adelaide, which was his best LIV finish this season.

Last year, Pereira finished 5th at LIV Singapore, shooting fantastic rounds of 67-66-66. It makes sense why Mito would like Sentosa, as preeminent ball strikers tend to rise to the challenge of the golf course. He’s a great long iron player who is long and straight off the tee.

Mito has some experience playing in Asia and is one of the most talented players on LIV who’s yet to get in the winner’s circle. I have questions about whether or not he can come through once in contention, but if he gets there, I’m happy to roll the dice.

Andy Ogletree +15000 (DraftKings)

Andy Ogletree is a player I expected to have a strong 2024 but struggled early in his first full season on LIV. After failing to crack the top-25 in any LIV event this year, the former U.S. Amateur champion finally figured things out, finished in a tie for 3rd at LIV Adelaide.

Ogletree should be incredible comfortable playing in Singapore. He won the International Series Qatar last year and finished T3 at the International Series Singapore. The 26-year-old was arguably the best player on the Asian Tour in 2023 and has been fantastic in the continent over the past 18 months.

If Ogletree has indeed found form, he looks to be an amazing value at triple-digit odds.

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Opinion & Analysis

Ryan: Lessons from the worst golf instructor in America

Published

5 days ago

Apr 30, 2024

Brendan Ryan

In Tampa, there is a golf course that boasts carts that do not work, a water range, and a group of players none of which have any chance to break 80. The course is overseen by a staff of crusty men who have succeeded at nothing in life but ending up at the worst-run course in America. However, this place is no failure. With several other local courses going out of business — and boasting outstanding greens — the place is booked full.

While I came for the great greens, I stayed to watch our resident instructor; a poor-tempered, method teacher who caters to the hopeless. At first, it was simply hilarious. However, after months of listening and watching, something clicked. I realized I had a front-row seat to the worst golf instructor in America.

Here are some of my key takeaways.

Method Teacher

It is widely accepted that there are three types of golf instructors: system teachers, non-system teachers, and method teachers. Method teachers prescribe the same antidote for each student based on a preamble which teachers can learn in a couple day certification.

Method teaching allows anyone to be certified. This process caters to the lowest caliber instructor, creating the illusion of competency. This empowers these underqualified instructors with the moniker of “certified” to prey on the innocent and uninformed.

The Cult of Stack and Jilt

The Stack and Tilt website proudly boasts, “A golfer swings his hands inward in the backswing as opposed to straight back to 1) create power, similar to a field goal kicker moving his leg in an arc and 2) to promote a swing that is in-to-out, which produces a draw (and eliminates a slice).”

Now, let me tell you something, there is this law of the universe which says “energy can either be created or destroyed,” so either these guys are defying physics or they have no idea what they are taking about. Further, the idea that the first move of the backswing determines impact is conjecture with a splash of utter fantasy.

These are the pontifications of a method — a set of prescriptions applied to everyone with the hope of some success through the placebo effect. It is one thing for a naive student to believe, for a golf instructor to drink and then dispel this Kool-Aid is malpractice.

Fooled by Randomness

In flipping a coin, or even a March Madness bet, there is a 50-50 chance of success. In golf, especially for new players, results are asymmetric. Simply put: Anything can happen. The problem is that when bad instructors work with high handicappers, each and every shot gets its own diagnosis and prescription. Soon the student is overwhelmed.

Now here’s the sinister thing: The overwhelming information is by design. In this case, the coach is not trying to make you better, they are trying to make you reliant on them for information. A quasi Stockholm syndrome of codependency.

Practice

One of the most important scientists of the 20th century was Ivan Pavlov. As you might recall, he found that animals, including humans, could be conditioned into biological responses. In golf, the idea of practice has made millions of hackers salivate that they are one lesson or practice session from “the secret.”

Sunk Cost

The idea for the worst golf instructor is to create control and dependency so that clients ignore the sunk cost of not getting better. Instead, they are held hostage by the idea that they are one lesson or tip away from unlocking their potential.

Cliches

Cliches have the effect of terminating thoughts. However, they are the weapon of choice for this instructor. Add some hyperbole and students actually get no information. As a result, these players couldn’t play golf. When they did, they had no real scheme. With no idea what they are doing, they would descend into a spiral of no idea what to do, bad results, lower confidence, and running back to the lesson tee from more cliches.

The fact is that poor instruction is about conditioning players to become reliant members of your cult. To take away autonomy. To use practice as a form of control. To sell more golf lessons not by making people better but through the guise that without the teacher, the student can never reach their full potential. All under the umbrella of being “certified” (in a 2-day course!) and a melee of cliches.

This of course is not just happening at my muni but is a systemic problem around the country and around the world, the consequences of which are giving people a great reason to stop playing golf. But hey, at least it’s selling a lot of golf balls…

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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans betting preview

Published

2 weeks ago

Apr 22, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

The PGA TOUR heads to New Orleans to play the 2023 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. In a welcome change from the usual stroke play, the Zurich Classic is a team event. On Thursday and Saturday, the teams play best ball, and on Friday and Sunday the teams play alternate shot.

TPC Louisiana is a par 72 that measures 7,425 yards. The course features some short par 4s and plenty of water and bunkers, which makes for a lot of exciting risk/reward scenarios for competitors. Pete Dye designed the course in 2004 specifically for the Zurich Classic, although the event didn’t make its debut until 2007 because of Hurricane Katrina.

Coming off of the Masters and a signature event in consecutive weeks, the field this week is a step down, and understandably so. Many of the world’s top players will be using this time to rest after a busy stretch.

However, there are some interesting teams this season with some stars making surprise appearances in the team event. Some notable teams include Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa and Kurt Kitayama, Will Zalatoris and Sahith Theegala as well as a few Canadian teams, Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin and Taylor Pendrith and Corey Conners.

Past Winners at TPC Louisiana

2023: Riley/Hardy (-30)
2022: Cantlay/Schauffele (-29)
2021: Leishman/Smith (-20)
2019: Palmer/Rahm (-26)
2018: Horschel/Piercy (-22)
2017: Blixt/Smith (-27)

2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans Picks

Tom Hoge/Maverick McNealy +2500 (DraftKings)

Tom Hoge is coming off of a solid T18 finish at the RBC Heritage and finished T13 at last year’s Zurich Classic alongside Harris English.

This season, Hoge is having one of his best years on Tour in terms of Strokes Gained: Approach. In his last 24 rounds, the only player to top him on the category is Scottie Scheffler. Hoge has been solid on Pete Dye designs, ranking 28th in the field over his past 36 rounds.

McNealy is also having a solid season. He’s finished T6 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and T9 at the PLAYERS Championship. He recently started working with world renowned swing coach, Butch Harmon, and its seemingly paid dividends in 2024.

Keith Mitchell/Joel Dahmen +4000 (DraftKings)

Keith Mitchell is having a fantastic season, finishing in the top-20 of five of his past seven starts on Tour. Most recently, Mitchell finished T14 at the Valero Texas Open and gained a whopping 6.0 strokes off the tee. He finished 6th at last year’s Zurich Classic.

Joel Dahmen is having a resurgent year and has been dialed in with his irons. He also has a T11 finish at the PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass which is another Pete Dye track. With Mitchell’s length and Dahmen’s ability to put it close with his short irons, the Mitchell/Dahmen combination will be dangerous this week.

Taylor Moore/Matt NeSmith +6500 (DraftKings)

Taylor Moore has quickly developed into one of the more consistent players on Tour. He’s finished in the top-20 in three of his past four starts, including a very impressive showing at The Masters, finishing T20. He’s also finished T4 at this event in consecutive seasons alongside Matt NeSmith.

NeSmith isn’t having a great 2024, but has seemed to elevate his game in this format. He finished T26 at Pete Dye’s TPC Sawgrass, which gives the 30-year-old something to build off of. NeSmith is also a great putter on Bermudagrass, which could help elevate Moore’s ball striking prowess.

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