System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Ben Hogan, Golfer
August 13, 1912 - July 25, 1997
William Benjamin Hogan was born on Aug. 13, 1912 in Dublin, Texas, the third child of Clara and Chester, the village blacksmith. Perhaps Hogan's manner can be traced back to the evening of Feb. 13, 1922 in Fort Worth when his father committed suicide. Ben, nine years old, was in the house when his father pulled the trigger. Chester, 37, died the next morning.
With the family living in Fort Worth, Ben sold newspapers to help put food on the table. At 12, he turned to caddying, receiving 65 cents a round at the Glen Garden Country Club. He wasn't popular with the other caddies, and was frequently hazed.In his spare time, he began playing. After awhile he switched from his natural left-handed stance to hitting right-handed. When he was through caddying for the day, he spent hours on the driving range.
Despite having an uncontrollable hook, Hogan turned pro when he was 17 and joined the tour at 19. It didn't work out. There were several failed attempts before he returned to the tour in 1937, two years after marrying Valerie. It took a few more years before he started cashing checks regularly. The checks got bigger and bigger and he was the tour's leading money winner in 1940, 1941 and 1942 before going into the military. Serving as a lieutenant in the Army Air Corps during World War II, he spent much of his time sharpening his golf game. Out of the service, Hogan won his first major in 1946, taking the PGA Championship title, beating Porky Oliver 6-and-4 in the final.
Two years later, Hogan won another PGA and his first U.S. Open. From the time of his discharge from the Army in August 1945, just after his 33rd birthday, until the crash, Hogan won an amazing 37 tournaments and twice was leading money-winner for the year. A controlled left-to-right ball flight and sound course management were the main reasons for his success.
Hogan was nearly killed on February 13, 1949, in a car accident, but came back to win U.S. Open in '50. After the accident, Hogan didn't play more than seven tournaments a year because his legs couldn't take the stress. Yet he won 13 more tournaments.
In 1951, Hogan retained his U.S. Open title when his 32 on the back nine in the final round enabled him to win by two strokes at demanding Oakland Hills in Bloomfield, Michigan. He also won his first Masters, shooting a then-record 274. Hogan was even better in 1953. At 41, he won five of six tournaments, including three majors -- the Masters, U.S. Open and the British Open (in his only appearance in this tournament). That's as close as anyone has come to winning pro golf's Grand Slam.
It appeared as if Hogan would become the first five-time U.S. Open winner in 1955, when he was in the clubhouse with a two-stroke lead. But Jack Fleck birdied two of the final four holes, including the last one, to tie Hogan and then he beat him the next day in a playoff. The next year, a missed 30-inch putt for par on the 71st hole dropped Hogan a stroke behind winner Cary Middlecoff.
In 10 years of competing in the U.S. Open from 1946-56, Hogan had the extraordinary record of four firsts, two seconds, a third, a fourth and being sixth twice. Hogan is credited with 64 PGA victories, third all-time behind Snead's 82 and Nicklaus' 73. Only Nicklaus (18) and Walter Hagen (11) have won more professional majors than Hogan (nine).
After his professional career declined, he concentrated on managing his successful golf equipment company, the Ben Hogan Company, which he started in the mid-1950s. With Herbert Warren Wind, he co-authored perhaps the most quoted golf book of instruction: Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf.
Hogan, who had colon cancer surgery in 1995 and suffered from Alzheimer's disease, died at 84 on July 25, 1997 in his home in Fort Worth.
