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 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans betting preview

Published

3 days 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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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s 2024 LIV Adelaide betting preview: Cam Smith ready for big week down under

Published

3 days ago

Apr 22, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

After having four of the top twelve players on the leaderboard at The Masters, LIV Golf is set for their fifth event of the season: LIV Adelaide.

For both LIV fans and golf fans in Australia, LIV Adelaide is one of the most anticipated events of the year. With 35,000 people expected to attend each day of the tournament, the Grange Golf Club will be crawling with fans who are passionate about the sport of golf. The 12th hole, better known as “the watering hole”, is sure to have the rowdiest of the fans cheering after a long day of drinking some Leishman Lager.

The Grange Golf Club is a par-72 that measures 6,946 yards. The course features minimal resistance, as golfers went extremely low last season. In 2023, Talor Gooch shot consecutive rounds of 62 on Thursday and Friday, giving himself a gigantic cushion heading into championship Sunday. Things got tight for a while, but in the end, the Oklahoma State product was able to hold off The Crushers’ Anirban Lahiri for a three-shot victory.

The Four Aces won the team competition with the Range Goats finishing second.

*All Images Courtesy of LIV Golf*

Past Winners at LIV Adelaide

2023: Talor Gooch (-19)

Stat Leaders Through LIV Miami

Green in Regulation

Richard Bland
Jon Rahm
Paul Casey

Fairways Hit

Abraham Ancer
Graeme McDowell
Henrik Stenson

Driving Distance

Bryson DeChambeau
Joaquin Niemann
Dean Burmester

Putting

Cameron Smith
Louis Oosthuizen
Matt Jones

2024 LIV Adelaide Picks

Cameron Smith +1400 (DraftKings)

When I pulled up the odds for LIV Adelaide, I was more than a little surprised to see multiple golfers listed ahead of Cameron Smith on the betting board. A few starts ago, Cam finished runner-up at LIV Hong Kong, which is a golf course that absolutely suits his eye. Augusta National in another course that Smith could roll out of bed and finish in the top-ten at, and he did so two weeks ago at The Masters, finishing T6.

At Augusta, he gained strokes on the field on approach, off the tee (slightly), and of course, around the green and putting. Smith able to get in the mix at a major championship despite coming into the week feeling under the weather tells me that his game is once again rounding into form.

The Grange Golf Club is another course that undoubtedly suits the Australian. Smith is obviously incredibly comfortable playing in front of the Aussie faithful and has won three Australian PGA Championship’s. The course is very short and will allow Smith to play conservative off the tee, mitigating his most glaring weakness. With birdies available all over the golf course, there’s a chance the event turns into a putting contest, and there’s no one on the planet I’d rather have in one of those than Cam Smith.

Louis Oosthuizen +2200 (DraftKings)

Louis Oosthuizen has simply been one of the best players on LIV in the 2024 seas0n. The South African has finished in the top-10 on the LIV leaderboard in three of his five starts, with his best coming in Jeddah, where he finished T2. Perhaps more impressively, Oosthuizen finished T7 at LIV Miami, which took place at Doral’s “Blue Monster”, an absolutely massive golf course. Given that Louis is on the shorter side in terms of distance off the tee, his ability to play well in Miami shows how dialed he is with the irons this season.

In addition to the LIV finishes, Oosthuizen won back-to-back starts on the DP World Tour in December at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the Mauritus Open. He also finished runner-up at the end of February in the International Series Oman. The 41-year-old has been one of the most consistent performers of 2024, regardless of tour.

For the season, Louis ranks 4th on LIV in birdies made, T9 in fairways hit and first in putting. He ranks 32nd in driving distance, but that won’t be an issue at this short course. Last season, he finished T11 at the event, but was in decent position going into the final round but fell back after shooting 70 while the rest of the field went low. This season, Oosthuizen comes into the event in peak form, and the course should be a perfect fit for his smooth swing and hot putter this week.

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Opinion & Analysis

The Wedge Guy: What really makes a wedge work? Part 1

Published

1 week ago

Apr 18, 2024

Terry Koehler

Of all the clubs in our bags, wedges are almost always the simplest in construction and, therefore, the easiest to analyze what might make one work differently from another if you know what to look for.

Wedges are a lot less mysterious than drivers, of course, as the major brands are working with a lot of “pixie dust” inside these modern marvels. That’s carrying over more to irons now, with so many new models featuring internal multi-material technologies, and almost all of them having a “badge” or insert in the back to allow more complex graphics while hiding the actual distribution of mass.

But when it comes to wedges, most on the market today are still single pieces of molded steel, either cast or forged into that shape. So, if you look closely at where the mass is distributed, it’s pretty clear how that wedge is going to perform.

To start, because of their wider soles, the majority of the mass of almost any wedge is along the bottom third of the clubhead. So, the best wedge shots are always those hit between the 2nd and 5th grooves so that more mass is directly behind that impact. Elite tour professionals practice incessantly to learn to do that consistently, wearing out a spot about the size of a penny right there. If impact moves higher than that, the face is dramatically thinner, so smash factor is compromised significantly, which reduces the overall distance the ball will fly.

Every one of us, tour players included, knows that maddening shot that we feel a bit high on the face and it doesn’t go anywhere, it’s not your fault.

If your wedges show a wear pattern the size of a silver dollar, and centered above the 3rd or 4th groove, you are not getting anywhere near the same performance from shot to shot. Robot testing proves impact even two to three grooves higher in the face can cause distance loss of up to 35 to 55 feet with modern ‘tour design’ wedges.

In addition, as impact moves above the center of mass, the golf club principle of gear effect causes the ball to fly higher with less spin. Think of modern drivers for a minute. The “holy grail” of driving is high launch and low spin, and the driver engineers are pulling out all stops to get the mass as low in the clubhead as possible to optimize this combination.

Where is all the mass in your wedges? Low. So, disregarding the higher lofts, wedges “want” to launch the ball high with low spin – exactly the opposite of what good wedge play requires penetrating ball flight with high spin.

While almost all major brand wedges have begun putting a tiny bit more thickness in the top portion of the clubhead, conventional and modern ‘tour design’ wedges perform pretty much like they always have. Elite players learn to hit those crisp, spinny penetrating wedge shots by spending lots of practice time learning to consistently make contact low in the face.

So, what about grooves and face texture?

Grooves on any club can only do so much, and no one has any material advantage here. The USGA tightly defines what we manufacturers can do with grooves and face texture, and modern manufacturing techniques allow all of us to push those limits ever closer. And we all do. End of story.

Then there’s the topic of bounce and grinds, the most complex and confusing part of the wedge formula. Many top brands offer a complex array of sole configurations, all of them admittedly specialized to a particular kind of lie or turf conditions, and/or a particular divot pattern.

But if you don’t play the same turf all the time, and make the same size divot on every swing, how would you ever figure this out?

The only way is to take any wedge you are considering and play it a few rounds, hitting all the shots you face and observing the results. There’s simply no other way.

So, hopefully this will inspire a lively conversation in our comments section, and I’ll chime in to answer any questions you might have.

And next week, I’ll dive into the rest of the wedge formula. Yes, shafts, grips and specifications are essential, too.

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