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The career earnings of Ben Hogan had he played in the modern era

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Ben Hogan earned a total of $332,517 during his career on the course, which makes you wonder how much he would have collected if he played today.

David McSweeney of GolferLogic (and avid Hogan fan) has crunched the numbers. Factoring in inflation, his findings show that based on the dollar’s current value those $332k winnings equate to $3.9M in 2021. But had he played today, McSweeney revealed that Hogan’s on-course earnings would have been a monstrous $176,728,205.

However, the game’s purses haven’t always been as impressive as they are now, and the consensus is that the reason for today’s whopping prize money is down to the impact Tiger Woods has had on the sport.

So, McSweeney also figured out how much Hogan would have earned if he played in the Tiger-era and the results are fascinating.

On a sliding scale over the past 25 years, McSweeney found that Hogan would have earned $91.8M, putting Hogan third on the all-time money list, behind Woods and Phil Mickelson.

Would Hogan have won more or less if he played in the Tiger-era? Well, that’s a never-ending debate, but it’s an incredible look into the potential earnings of one of the greats had he been around today.

It’s also worth pointing out that Hogan, who won 64 PGA tournaments including 9 majors, sustained severe injuries in a car accident in 1949, which limited the number of events he was able to play after that. Despite that, 6 of his 9 major wins were achieved post-accident.

On the calculating process, McSweeney revealed

“For total potential earnings ($176.7M) we used the latest purses from PGA tournaments, and allocated earnings based on his finish position. Where a tournament Hogan entered was defunct, we used a PGA average purse of $7.045M.

But this figure was based on 2020 purses. And as PGA winnings have increased exponentially over the past 20 years, did not provide a fair comparison against other players on the all-time money list. So we also calculated a ‘Tiger era’ figure, which had Hogan’s early tournament performances earnings less (around 20% of current purses), and increasing over time until they reached modern purses in his final tournament years (1967 and 1970).”

Check out McSweeney’s full study and methodology here.

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Gianni is the Managing Editor at GolfWRX. He can be contacted at [email protected].

19th Hole

Butch Harmon reveals what he worked on with Rory McIlroy during visit earlier this year

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While speaking on the “Son of a Butch” Podcast, legendary swing coach Butch Harmon revealed what he worked on with Rory McIlroy when the four-time major champion went to visit him after the Players Championship this season.

“The work I did with him wasn’t a tremendous amount of changing what he did, it was his attitude and the way he played certain shots. From 150 yards and in he made a full swing like he was hitting a driver and I wanted him to make more 3 quarter swings and chop the follow through off a little. He’s a very high ball hitter, but with short irons high balls aren’t good, it’s hard to control, we wanted to bring the ball flight down.”

The work certainly seemed to help McIlroy, as he went on to win the Zurich Classic alongside Shane Lowry and the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in back-to-back starts.

Rory will now tee it up at Valhalla for the PGA Championship, which is the site of his most recent major victory in 2014.

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19th Hole

Brandel Chamblee says this technological development was key to Phil Mickelson winning major championships

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While speaking with GolfWRX, Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee shared that he believes the solid core golf ball helped Phil Mickelson win major championships.

“One of the consequences of the solid core golf ball coming around was it put the straightest of hitters in the rough.

“Phil started winning majors in 2004, I don’t think that’s any coincidence. I think he started winning majors after the solid core golf ball came along and put everybody in the rough.

“And so [Phil] is like ‘I got you in the rough, I’m going to kick your a**. This is my game. I’ve been in the rough my whole career. I can go over trees, through trees, around trees.’

“Because he’s got that amazing creativity and Phil is an underrated iron player, phenomenal iron player. Great, great great out of the trouble. If you put the top-40 players on a list and ranked them in terms of accuracy, he would be 40th.

“So, I think that was one of the consequences of the solid core golf balls was it allowed Phil to win major championships.”

Mickelson went on to win the Masters in 2004 as well as five additional majors from 2004-2021 including three total Masters, two PGA Championships, and an Open Championship.

Check out the full interview with Chamblee below:

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19th Hole

Former Augusta National employee pleads guilty to transporting stolen Masters memorabilia; Arnold Palmer’s green jacket among stolen items

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According to a report from the Chicago Tribune, a man was charged in Chicago with stealing millions of dollars’ worth of memorabilia from Augusta National last month.

The man, Robert Globensky, was charged with transporting the memorabilia across state lines.

The report states that between 2009 and 2022, Globensky allegedly transported “millions of dollars’ worth of Masters golf tournament merchandise and historical memorabilia” from Augusta National “and transported to Tampa, Florida, knowing the same had been stolen, converted and taken by fraud.”

The document was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Since then, more details have emerged about the case.

According to Darren Rovell of Cllct, one of the items that was stolen was Arnold Palmer’s green jacket.

The Chicago Tribune also reported that Globensky was able to steal the merchandise due to his role as a former warehouse coordinator at Augusta National who oversaw the Masters merchandise that was sold.

Rovell states that “A source with intimate knowledge of the case said an Augusta National member, who knew the jacket was missing, contacted a well-known collector who had gained a reputation for tracking down rare items. The member’s goal was to return the jacket to Augusta under the guise of purchasing it in a private sale.”

The plan worked, and the man agreed to sell the jacket for an agreed upon price of $3.6 million. After the sale was complete, the FBI swarmed the house of the thief.

Cllct also reported that Globensky pled guilty in a federal court in Chicago on Wednesday and now faces up to 10 years in prison.

The Chicago Tribune adds that Globensky’s plea deal includes an agreement to provide the government a cashier’s check for $1.5 million in the next few days.

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