“Reverse every natural instinct and do the opposite of what you are inclined to do, and you will probably come very close to having a perfect golf swing.”
-- Ben Hogan

Perhaps the most famous golf photograph of all time: Ben Hogan's one iron from over 200 yards to seal the 1950 U.S. Open.

Born August 13, 1912, William Benjamin Hogan came into the world the son of the village blacksmith in Dublin Texas. Young Ben lost his father at the age of nine and the family moved to Fort Worth—the town that would forever be Ben’s home and become so associated with his name. Ben Hogan began by delivering newspapers but quickly discovered, at the tender age of twelve, that caddying at the local Glen Garden Country Club (a position that was also shared by one Byron Nelson) provided more in the way of remuneration than did tossing periodicals. A natural southpaw, Ben switched to playing the game of golf right handed and, despite a terrible hook, turned pro at the age of seventeen—it would be nine long years before Hogan ever notched a professional victory.

Perfect balance and grace

Ben Hogan’s mastery of the game came along with what he called his “secret.” Hogan never fully divulged just what his secret was, but many believe it to be a combination of weakening his left grip and swinging with a more clock-like motion. Hogan’s secret allowed him to hit a power draw that he could always control. This control became the centerpiece of his game, as he showed time and time again at the one tournament that, more than any other, requires total control off the tee: the U.S. Open. He won the Open four times: 1948, 1950, 1951 and 1953.

Perhaps more impressive even than the fact that he won nine major championship and 68 PGA tour events is that most of those major championship victories came after a car accident that nearly took his life and, by all rights, should have ended his golf career. It was while passing through Van Horn, Texas on his way back to Fort Worth from a tournament that Ben saw a Greyhound bus in the wrong lane on a head on collision course with his car. Hogan dove to the right, putting himself between his wife and the oncoming danger.

The crash drove the engine into the driver’s seat and the steering wheel into the back seat. Ben’s wife Valerie suffered only minor injuries but Hogan broke his collarbone, a rib, his pelvis, and an ankle. After his injuries were treated, Hogan developed a blood clot that required an abdominal operation that necessitated the principal veins in his legs to be tied off. Many thought he would never play again, but Ben proved them wrong, playing the best golf of his career on a limited schedule for the next two decades.

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 the help of Marvin Leonard, the man who built both the Colonial and Shady Oaks Country Clubs—for years, Hogan could be found sitting, and drinking, at his table in Shady Oaks, his adopted home. Ben’s golf instruction book, the Modern Fundamentals of Golf, is still one of the most important golf books ever penned.

Hogan was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1995 and, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, died at the age of 84 in his home in Fort Worth on July 25, 1997.