Jason Dufner
Personal information
Full name	Jason Christopher Dufner
Born	(1977-03-24) March 24, 1977 (age 35) Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight	180 lb (82 kg; 13 st)
Nationality	United States
Residence	Auburn, Alabama, U.S.
Spouse	Amanda Boyd
Career
College	Auburn University
Turned professional	2000
Current tour(s)	PGA Tour
Former tour(s)	Nationwide Tour
Professional wins	4
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour	2
Nationwide Tour	2
Best results in Major Championships
Masters Tournament	T24: 2012
U.S. Open	T33: 2010
The Open Championship	CUT: 2010, 2011
PGA Championship	2nd: 2011

Jason Christopher Dufner (born March 24, 1977) is an American professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Tour. His most notable moment came at the 2011 PGA Championship where he lost a four hole playoff to Keegan Bradley, having held a five stroke advantage with four holes to play.

Early life[link]

Dufner was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He moved to the Washington, D.C. area when he was 11 years old, and then to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida^[1] when he was 14. It was there that he started playing golf, and played for St. Thomas Aquinas High School during his sophomore, junior and senior years.^[2]

Amateur career[link]

Dufner was a walk-on at Auburn University, where he won three times in his college career and was an Honorable Mention All-American in 1997.^[2] He graduated from Auburn in 2000 with a degree in economics.^[3]

In 1998 Dufner played in the finals of the U.S. Amateur Public Links at Torrey Pines, falling to Trevor Immelman, 3 and 2.

Professional career[link]

In his early career, Dufner struggled to hold down a place on the PGA Tour. He was a member of the PGA Tour in 2004 and the Nationwide Tour in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006. Dufner won two events during his time on the Nationwide Tour, the BUY.COM Wichita Open in 2001 and the LaSalle Bank Open in 2006. He finished in 8th place on the Nationwide Tour money list in 2006 to earn his PGA Tour card for 2007. He finished 127th in the FedEx Cup standings in 2007, and failed to qualify at the PGA Tour Q-School, where he finished T149. He retained conditional status for the 2008 PGA Tour season, and then finished T11 at the Q-School that year to earn his card for 2009. He has been a member of the PGA Tour every year since. In 2009, Dufner finished in the top-10 on six occasions, including a third place finish at the RBC Canadian Open, and a runner up place at the Deutsche Bank Championship, part of the FedEx Cup playoffs. As a result, Dufner went on to finish the year 11th in the FedEx Cup standings and 33rd on the year's money list.^[4]

Dufner had a less successful 2010 season, recording only two top-10 finishes. However, his best finish of the year came in a major championship, at the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. He finished in a tie for fifth place, two strokes short of the playoff. This was the best result to date Dufner had recorded in a major. He was eliminated in the third FedEx Cup playoff event and did not qualify for the The Tour Championship.

2011[link]

Early in 2011, Dufner had a chance to win his first PGA Tour title at the Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale when he finished tied for the lead at 18-under-par after 72 holes, before eventually losing in a playoff to Mark Wilson. Wilson made a birdie on the second extra hole and the best Dufner could manage there was a par. He also had a good finish in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans where a final-round 66 boosted him to a tie for third place. Dufner earned entry into the 2011 U.S. Open after Anders Hansen withdrew; previously during a qualifying tournament in Georgia, Dufner had lost in a playoff to Russell Henley. He also played in the 2011 Open Championship as a result of Tiger Woods pulling out due to injury.^[5] He missed the cut in both the U.S. Open and the Open Championship.

2011 PGA Championship near miss[link]

At the 2011 PGA Championship in Atlanta, Dufner was in contention to win his first major and maiden PGA Tour title, when he entered the final round in the last group and tied for the lead with Brendan Steele at seven under par. Dufner completed the front nine in 33, two under par, while playing partner Steele dropped four shots early on and fell out of contention. Dufner held the lead for most of the final round and was bogey-free through 14 holes. After his nearest challenger, Keegan Bradley, made triple bogey on the 15th, Dufner had a five-stroke advantage with four holes to play. Dufner then hit his tee shot on 15 into the water hazard right of the green on the par three. He got up and down from the drop zone to make bogey, but followed this with bogeys at 16 and 17. Meanwhile, Bradley scored back-to-back birdies on 16 and 17 to take the clubhouse lead at eight under, wiping out Dufner's advantage. Dufner parred the 18th and the two American players went into a three-hole aggregate playoff.

On the first playoff hole, both players hit their approach shots to 16 within a few feet. Bradley made his birdie put, while Dufner missed his birdie, allowing Bradley to take a one-stroke advantage to the 17th. Both players found the green from the tee, and while Bradley two-putted for his par, Dufner knocked his first putt well past the hole, and three-putted the green to fall two strokes behind with one to play. At the last hole, Bradley's second shot cleared the water by a few yards; Dufner then followed with a shot on the same line and made his birdie putt. Bradley only needed to two-putt for the championship, which he did.^[6] This was Dufner's best major finish, winning $865,000 of the purse, with both of his career high finishes in majors coming at the PGA Championship. With his second place finish, he rose to 38th in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR).

2012[link]

Dufner continued his good form in 2012 by sharing the 36-hole lead at the Masters, but faded on the weekend to finish T24.^[7] Three weeks later at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Dufner won for the first time on the PGA Tour in his 164th start when he defeated Ernie Els on the second hole of a sudden death playoff. He entered the final round with a two stroke advantage and shot a 70 to finish at 19 under par, a tournament total record, which Els also equalled. At the first playoff hole, the 18th, Els had a chance to clinch victory with a six foot putt, but pushed it out to the right. Replaying the 18th again, Dufner found the green in two and when Els couldn't get up and down from 100 yards short of the green, Dufner sealed the win with a two putt. Dufner moved into the world's top 20 as a result of his first victory.^[8]

Three weeks later, Dufner chalked up his second victory with a win at the HP Byron Nelson Championship by one stroke over Dicky Pride, who was seeking his first win since 1994. Dufner began the final round with the 54-hole lead, but suffered setbacks when he bogeyed two and three to surrender the lead. He recovered with birdies at four, five and seven, but remained behind playing partner JJ Henry until the 17th when Henry made double bogey. Now tied for the lead with Pride, the clubhouse leader, after 71 holes, Dufner sank a 25 foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole for the outright victory. The win elevated Dufner to 14th in the OWGR and first in the FedEx Cup standings. Dufner became only the second multiple winner on the PGA Tour in 2012, alongside Hunter Mahan. In May 2012, Dufner had an opportunity to win his third PGA Tour title of the year at the Colonial, where he was leading after 36 and 54 holes respectively before being beaten by one stroke by former Masters champion Zach Johnson.^[9]. The second place finish, however, catapulted Dufner to 8th place in the Official World Golf Ranking, a career best ranking.

Professional wins (4)[link]

PGA Tour wins (2)[link]

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner-up
1	Apr 29, 2012	Zurich Classic of New Orleans	67-65-67-70=269	–19	Playoff	Ernie Els
2	May 20, 2012	HP Byron Nelson Championship	67-66-69-67=269	–11	1 stroke	Dicky Pride

PGA Tour playoff record (1–2)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent	Result
1	2011	Waste Management Phoenix Open	Mark Wilson	Lost to birdie on second extra hole
2	2011	PGA Championship	Keegan Bradley	Lost three-hole aggregate playoff: Bradley 3-3-4=10 (–1), Dufner 4-4-3=11 (E)
3	2012	Zurich Classic of New Orleans	Ernie Els	Won with birdie on second extra hole

Nationwide Tour wins (2)[link]

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	Jul 15, 2001	BUY.COM Wichita Open	67-67-64-68=266	–22	3 strokes	David Gossett, Jeff Gove Todd Rose
2	Jun 11, 2006	LaSalle Bank Open	69-71-69-70=279	–5	1 stroke	Cliff Kresge

Results in major championships[link]

DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
Yellow background for top-10.

Summary[link]

• Tournaments played: 12
• Wins: 0
• Top 10s: 2
• Top 25s: 3
• Missed cuts: 5
• Most consecutive cuts made: 2

See also[link]

• 2003 Nationwide Tour graduates
• 2006 Nationwide Tour graduates

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jason Dufner at the PGA Tour official site
• Jason Dufner at the Official World Golf Ranking official site

Ben Hogan
Hogan in New York City in 1953
Personal information
Full name	William Ben Hogan
Nickname	The Hawk, Bantam Ben, The Wee Iceman
Born	(1912-08-13)August 13, 1912 Stephenville, Texas
Died	July 25, 1997(1997-07-25) (aged 84) Fort Worth, Texas
Height	5 ft 8.5 in (1.74 m)
Weight	145 lb (66 kg; 10.4 st)
Nationality	United States
Spouse	Valerie
Career
Turned professional	1930
Retired	1971
Former tour(s)	PGA Tour
Professional wins	68
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour	64 (4th all time)
Best results in Major Championships (Wins: 9)
Masters Tournament	Won: 1951, 1953
U.S. Open	Won: 1948, 1950, 1951, 1953
The Open Championship	Won: 1953
PGA Championship	Won: 1946, 1948
Achievements and awards
World Golf Hall of Fame	1974 (member page)
PGA Tour leading money winner	1940, 1941, 1942, 1946, 1948
PGA Player of the Year	1948, 1950, 1951, 1953
Vardon Trophy	1940, 1941, 1948
Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year	1953
(For a full list of awards, see here)

William Ben Hogan (August 13, 1912 – July 25, 1997) was an American professional golfer, generally considered one of the greatest players in the history of the game.^[1] Born within six months of two other acknowledged golf greats of the twentieth century, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson, Hogan is notable for his profound influence on the golf swing theory and his legendary ball-striking ability, for which he remains renowned among players and fans.

His nine career professional major championships tie him (with Gary Player) for fourth all-time, trailing only Jack Nicklaus (18), Tiger Woods (14) and Walter Hagen (11). Furthermore, he is one of only five golfers to have won all four major championships currently open to professionals (the Masters Tournament, the British Open, the U.S. Open, and the PGA Championship), the other four being Gene Sarazen, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

Early life and character[link]

Born in Stephenville, Texas, he was the third and youngest child of Chester and Clara (Williams) Hogan. His father was a blacksmith and the family lived ten miles southwest in Dublin until 1921, when they moved 70 miles (112 km) northeast to Fort Worth. In 1922, when Hogan was nine, his father Chester committed suicide at the family home via a self-inflicted gunshot to the chest. By some accounts Chester committed suicide in front of him, which some (including Hogan biographer James Dodson) have cited as the cause of his introverted personality in later years.^[2]

Following his father's suicide, the family incurred financial difficulty and the children took jobs to help their seamstress mother make ends meet. Older brother Royal quit school at age 14 to deliver office supplies by bicycle, and nine-year-old Ben sold newspapers after school at the nearby train station. A tip from a friend led him to caddying at the age of 11, at Glen Garden Country Club, a nine-hole course seven miles (11 km) to the south. One of his fellow caddies at Glen Garden was Byron Nelson, later a tour rival. The two would tie for the lead at the annual Christmas caddy tournament in December 1927, when both were 15. Nelson sank a 30-foot putt to tie on the ninth and final hole. Instead of sudden death, they played another nine holes; Nelson sank another substantial putt on the final green to win by a stroke.

The following spring, Nelson was granted the only junior membership offered by the members of Glen Garden. Club rules did not allow caddies age 16 and older, so after August 1928, Hogan took his game to three scrubby daily-fee courses: Katy Lake, Worth Hills, and Z-Boaz.

Turns professional[link]

Hogan dropped out of Central High School (R.L. Paschal High School) during the final semester of his senior year, and became a professional golfer at the Texas Open in San Antonio in late January 1930, more than six months shy of his eighteenth birthday. Hogan met Valerie Fox in Sunday school in Fort Worth in the mid-1920s, and they reacquainted in 1932 when he landed a low-paying club pro job in Cleburne, where her family had moved. They married in April 1935 at her parents' home.

Despite finishing 13th on the money list in 1938, Hogan had to take an assistant pro’s job, and was hired that year by Century Country Club in Purchase, New York. He worked at Century as an assistant and then as the head pro until 1941, when he took the head job at Hershey Country Club in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Breakthrough, style[link]

His early years as a pro were very difficult, and Hogan went broke more than once. He did not win his first pro tournament as an individual until March 1940, when he won three consecutive tournaments in North Carolina. Although it took a decade to secure his first victory, Hogan's wife Valerie believed in him, and this helped see him through the tough years, when he battled a hook, which he later cured.

By most accounts, Ben Hogan was the best golfer of his era, and still stands as one of the greatest of all time. "The Hawk" possessed fierce determination and an iron will, which combined with his unquestionable golf skills, formed an aura which could intimidate opponents into competitive submission. In Scotland, Hogan was known as "The Wee Ice Man", or, in some versions, "Wee Ice Mon," a moniker earned during his famous British Open victory at Carnoustie in 1953. It is a reference to his steely and seemingly nerveless demeanor, itself a product of a golf swing he had built that was designed to perform better the more pressure he put it under. Hogan rarely spoke during competition, and there are numerous anecdotes about Hogan's sparse but pithy remarks. Hogan was also highly respected by fellow competitors for his superb course management skills. During his peak years, he rarely if ever attempted a shot in competition which he had not thoroughly honed in practice.

Career-threatening accident[link]

Between the years of 1938 through 1959, Hogan won 63 professional golf tournaments despite his career being interrupted in its prime by World War II and a near-fatal car accident. Hogan served in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1945, leaving with the rank of sergeant.

Hogan and his wife, Valerie, survived a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus on a fog-shrouded bridge, early in the morning, east of Van Horn, Texas on February 2, 1949. Hogan threw himself across Valerie in order to protect her, and would have been killed had he not done so, as the steering column punctured the driver's seat.

This accident left Hogan, age 36, with a double-fracture of the pelvis, a fractured collar bone, a left ankle fracture, a chipped rib, and near-fatal blood clots: he would suffer lifelong circulation problems and other physical limitations. His doctors said he might never walk again, let alone play golf competitively. While in hospital, Hogan's life was endangered by a blood clot problem, leading doctors to tie off the vena cava. Hogan left the hospital on April 1, 59 days after the accident.

After regaining his strength by extensive walking, he resumed golf activities in November 1949. He returned to the PGA Tour to start the 1950 season, at the Los Angeles Open, where he tied with Sam Snead over 72 holes, but lost the 18-hole playoff.

The "Hogan Slam" season[link]

The win at Carnoustie was but a part of Hogan's watershed 1953 season, in which he won five of the six tournaments he entered and including three major championships (a feat known as the "Hogan Slam").

It still stands among the greatest single seasons in the history of professional golf. Hogan, 40, was unable to enter — and possibly win — the 1953 PGA Championship (to complete the Grand Slam) because its play (July 1–7) overlapped the play of the British Open at Carnoustie (July 6–10), which he won. It was the only time that a golfer had won three major professional championships in a year until Tiger Woods won the final three majors in 2000 (and the first in 2001).

Hogan often declined to play in the PGA Championship, skipping it more and more often as his career wore on. There were two reasons for this: firstly, the PGA Championship was, until 1958, a match play event, and Hogan's particular skill was "shooting a number" — meticulously planning and executing a strategy to achieve a score for a round on a particular course (even to the point of leaving out the 7-iron in the U.S. Open at Merion, saying "there are no 7-iron shots at Merion"). The second reason was that the PGA required several days of 36 holes per day competition, and after his 1949 auto accident, Hogan struggled to manage more than 18 holes a day.

Hogan's golf swing[link]

Ben Hogan is widely acknowledged to have been among the greatest ball strikers ever to have played golf. Although he had a formidable record as a tournament winner, it is this aspect of Hogan which mostly underpins his modern reputation.

Hogan was known to practice more than any other golfer of his contemporaries and is said to have "invented practice". On this matter, Hogan himself said, "You hear stories about me beating my brains out practicing, but... I was enjoying myself. I couldn't wait to get up in the morning, so I could hit balls. When I'm hitting the ball where I want, hard and crisply, it's a joy that very few people experience."^[3] He was also one of the first players to match particular clubs to yardages, or references points around the course such as bunkers or trees, in order to improve his distance control.

Hogan thought that an individual's golf swing was "in the dirt" and that mastering it required plenty of practice and repetition. He is also known to have spent years contemplating the golf swing, trying a range of theories and methods before arriving at the finished method which brought him his greatest period of success.

The young Hogan was badly afflicted by hooking the golf ball. Although slight of build at 5'8½" and 145 pounds^[4] – attributes that earned him the nickname "Bantam", which he thoroughly disliked -- he was very long off the tee early in his career, and even competed in long drive contests.

It has been alleged that Hogan used a "strong" grip, with hands more the right of the club grip in tournament play prior to his accident in 1949, despite often practicing with a "weak" grip, with the back of the left wrist facing the target, and that this limited his success, or, at least, his reliability, up to that date (source: John Jacobs in his book Fifty Greatest Golf Lessons of the Century).

Jacobs alleges that Byron Nelson told him this information, and furthermore that Hogan developed and used the "strong" grip as a boy in order to be able to hit the ball as far as bigger, stronger contemporaries. This strong grip is what resulted in Hogan hitting the odd disastrous snap hook. Nelson and Hogan both grew up in Fort Worth, and they are known to have played against each other as teenagers.

Hogan's late swing produced the famed "Hogan Fade" ball flight, lower than usual for a great player and from left to right. This ball flight was the result of his using a "draw" type swing in conjunction with a "weak" grip, a combination which all but negated the chance of hitting a hook.

Hogan played and practiced golf with only bare-hands i.e. he played or practiced without wearing any gloves. Moe Norman did the same, playing and practicing without gloves. The two were arguably the greatest ball strikers golf has ever known; even Tiger Woods quoted them as the only players ever to have "owned their swings", in that they had total control of it and, as a result, the ball's flight.^[5]

In May 1967, the editor of Cary Middlecoff's 1974 book The Golf Swing watched every shot that 54-year-old Hogan hit in the Colonial National Invitational in Fort Worth, Texas. "Hogan shot 281 for a third-place tie with George Archer. Of the 281 shots, 141 were taken in reaching the greens. Of the 141, 139 were rated from well-executed to superbly executed. The remaining two were a drive that missed the fairway by some 5 yards and a 5-iron to a par-3 hole that missed the green by about the same distance. It was difficult, if not impossible to conceive of anybody hitting the ball better over a four-day span."^[6]

Hogan's secret[link]

Hogan is thought to have developed a "secret" which made his swing nearly automatic. There are many theories as to its exact nature. The earliest theory is that the "secret" was a special wrist movement known as "cupping under". This information was revealed in a 1955 Life magazine article. However, many believed Hogan did not reveal all that he knew at the time. It has since been alleged in Golf Digest magazine, and by Jody Vasquez in his book "Afternoons With Mr Hogan", that the second element of Hogan's "secret" was the way in which he used his right knee to initiate the swing and that this right knee movement was critical to the correct operation of the wrist.

Hogan revealed later in life that the "secret" involved cupping the left wrist at the top of the back swing and using a weaker left hand grip (thumb more on top of the grip as opposed to on the right side).

Hogan did this to prevent himself from ever hooking the ball off the tee. By positioning his hands in this manner, he ensured that the club face would be slightly open upon impact, creating a fade (left to right ball flight) as opposed to a draw or hook (right to left ball flight).

This is not something that would benefit all golfers, however, since the average golfer already slices or fades the ball. The draw is more appealing to amateurs due to its greater distance.

Many believed that although he played right-handed as an adult, Hogan was actually left-handed. In his book "Five Lessons," in the chapter entitled "The Grip," Hogan said "I was born left-handed -- that was the normal way for me to do things. I was switched over to doing things right-handed when I was a boy but I started golf as a left-hander because the first club I ever came into possession of, an old five-iron, was a left-handed stick." This belief also seemed to be corroborated by Hogan himself in his earlier book "Power Golf." However, some mystery still remains about this since Hogan in subsequent interviews said that the belief of him being left-handed was actually a myth (noted in what was probably his last video interview and in his 1987 Golf Magazine interview).

In these interviews Hogan said that he was indeed a right-handed player who early on practiced/played with a left hand club that had been given to him because it was all that he had and that it was this issue that brought about the myth that he was left-handed. This may be the reason that his early play with right-handed equipment found him using a cross-handed grip (right hand at the end of the club, left hand below it). In "The Search for the Perfect Golf Swing", researchers Cochran and Stobbs held the opinion that a left-handed person playing right-handed would be prone to hook the ball.

Even a decade after his death, amateurs and professionals continue to study the techniques of this consummate player, as evidenced by such books as Ben Hogan, The Man Behind the Mystique (Martin, 2002) and the more recent The Secret of Hogan's Swing (Bertrand and Bowler, 2006). Hogan's Angle (Haslem, 2006), a revolutionary shift in golf swing theory, has been postulated as decoder for Five Lessons.

"Five Lessons" and golf instruction[link]

Hogan believed that a solid, repeatable golf swing involved only a few essential elements, which, when performed correctly and in sequence, were the essence of the swing. His book Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf is perhaps the most widely read golf tutorial ever written, although Harvey Penick's Little Red Book would also have a claim to that title, and the principles therein are often parroted by modern "swing gurus".

Ben Hogan's Modern Fundamentals: The Five Lessons of Golf was initially released as a five part series beginning in the March 1957 issue of Sports Illustrated magazine, and was printed in book form later in that same year. It is currently in its 64th printing. Even today it continues to maintain a place at or near the top of the Amazon.com golf book sales rankings. The book was co-authored by Herbert Warren Wind, and illustrated by artist Anthony Ravielli.

Playing style[link]

Hogan is widely acknowledged to have been the best ball striker ever.

Hogan's ball striking has also been described as being of near miraculous caliber by other very knowledgeable observers such as Jack Nicklaus, who only saw him play some years after his prime. Nicklaus once responded to the question, "Is Tiger Woods the best ball striker you have ever seen?" with, "No, no - Ben Hogan, easily".^[7]

Further testimony to Hogan's (and Norman's) status among top golfers is provided by Tiger Woods, who recently said that he wished to "own his (golf) swing" in the same way as Moe Norman and Hogan had. Woods claimed that this pair were the only players ever to have "owned their swings", in that they had total control of it and, as a result, of the ball's flight.^[5]

Although his ball striking was perhaps the greatest ever, Hogan is also known to have at times been a very poor putter by professional standards, particularly on slow greens. The majority of his putting problems developed after his car accident in 1949. Toward the end of his career, he would stand over the ball, in some cases for minutes, before drawing the putter back. It was written in the Hogan Biography, Ben Hogan: An American Life, that Hogan had damaged his left eye and that poor vision added to his putting problems.

While he suffered from the "yips" in his later years,^[8] Hogan was known as an effective putter from mid to short range on quick, U.S. Open style surfaces at times during his career.

Career and records[link]

In 1948 alone, Ben Hogan won 10 tournaments, including the U.S. Open at Riviera Country Club, a course known as "Hogan's Alley" because of his success there. Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, a modern PGA tournament venue, is also known as "Hogan's Alley" and may have the better claim to the nickname as it was his home course after his retirement, and he was an active member of Colonial as well for many years. Hogan's Alley is also the name of an FBI training complex, and the term has its origins in the late 19th century in the form of a cartoon strip, only later being matched with courses at which Hogan excelled. The sixth hole at Carnoustie, a par five from the tee of which Hogan took a famously difficult line off during each of his rounds in the 1953 Open Championship, has also recently been renamed Hogan's Alley.

Prior to the 1949 accident, Hogan never truly captured the hearts of his galleries, despite being one of the better golfers of his time. Perhaps this was due to his perceived cold and aloof on-course persona. But when Ben Hogan shocked and amazed the golf world by returning to tournament golf only 11 months after his accident, and, amazingly, took second place in the 1950 Los Angeles Open after a playoff loss to Sam Snead, he was cheered on by ecstatic fans. "His legs simply were not strong enough to carry his heart any longer", famed sportswriter Grantland Rice said of Hogan's near-miss. However, he proved to his critics (and to himself, especially) that he could still win by completing his famous comeback five months later, defeating Lloyd Mangrum and George Fazio in an 18-hole playoff at Merion Golf Club to win his second U.S. Open Championship. Hogan went on to achieve what is perhaps the greatest sporting accomplishment in history, limping to 12 more PGA Tour wins (including 6 majors) before retiring. In 1951, Hogan entered just five events, but won three of them - the Masters, the U.S. Open, and the World Championship of Golf, and finished second and fourth in his other two starts. He would finish fourth on that season's money list, barely $6,000 behind the season's official money list leader Lloyd Mangrum, who played over 20 events. That year also saw the release of a biopic starring Glenn Ford as Hogan, called Follow the Sun: The Ben Hogan Story.^[9] He even received a ticker-tape parade in New York City upon his return from winning the 1953 British Open Championship, the only time he played the event. With his British Open Championship victory, Hogan became just the second player, after Gene Sarazen, to win all four of the modern major championships—the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, and PGA Championship.

Hogan never competed on the senior golf tour, as that circuit did not exist until he was in his late sixties.

Five U.S. Opens?[link]

Many supporters of Hogan and some golf historians feel that his victory at the Hale America Open in 1942 should be counted as his fifth U.S. Open and 10th major championship, since the tournament was to be a substitute for the Open after its cancellation by the USGA. The Hale America Open was held in the same time slot and was run like the U.S. Open with more than 1,500 entries, local qualifying at 69 sites and sectional qualifying at most major cities. The top players, who were not off fighting in World War II, participated and the largest purse of the year was awarded.^[10][11][12]

Distinctions and honors[link]

• Hogan played on two U.S. Ryder Cup teams, 1947 and 1951, and captained the team three times, 1947, 1949, and 1967, famously claiming on the latter occasion to have brought the "twelve best golfers in the world" to play in the competition. (This line was used by subsequent Ryder Cup captain Raymond Floyd in 1989. In 1989, playing at The Belfry, the two sides halved at 14 points each and Team Europe retained the cup.)
• Hogan won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average three times: 1940, 1941, and 1948. In 1953, Hogan won the Hickok Belt as the top professional athlete of the year in the United States.
• The Ben Hogan Award is given annually by the Golf Writers Association of America to a golfer who has stayed active in golf despite a physical handicap or serious illness. The first winner was Babe Zaharias.
• He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974. In 1976, Ben Hogan was voted the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf.
• A special room is dedicated to Hogan's career, comeback, and accomplishments at the United States Golf Association Museum and Arnold Palmer Center for Golf History in Far Hills, New Jersey.
• Hogan ranked 38th in ESPN's SportsCentury 50 Greatest Athletes of the 20th Century in 1999.
• In 2000, Hogan was ranked as the second greatest player of all time by Golf Digest magazine. Jack Nicklaus was first, and Sam Snead was third.^[13]
• In 2009, Hogan was ranked as the fourth greatest player of all time by Golf Magazine. Jack Nicklaus was first, Tiger Woods was second, and Bobby Jones was third.^[14]
• Hogan helped to design the original plans for the Trophy Club Country Club Golfcourse in Trophy Club, Texas, and 9 of the course's 18 holes are designated as the "Hogan" Course.

Ben Hogan Golf Company[link]

Following his most successful season, Hogan started his golf club company in the fall of 1953 in Fort Worth. Production began in the summer of 1954, with clubs targeted toward "the better player." Always the stickler for perfection it is said Hogan ordered the entire first production run of clubs destroyed because they did not meet his exacting standards.

In 1960, he sold the company to American Machine and Foundry (AMF), but stayed on as chairman of the board for several more years. AMF Ben Hogan golf clubs were sold continuously from 1960 to 1985 when AMF was bought by Minstar who sold The Ben Hogan company in 1988 to Cosmo World. Cosmo world owned the club manufacturer until 1992. In 1992 Cosmo sold it to another independent investor, Bill Goodwin. Goodwin moved the company out of Fort Worth, and a union shop, to Virginia so it would be close to his home of operations for other AMF brands and, incidentally, a non-union shop in an effort to return the company to profitability. Goodwin sold to Spalding in 1997 closing the sale in January 1998. Spalding returned manufacturing to Hogan's Fort Worth, Texas roots before eventually including the company's assets in a bankruptcy sale of Spalding's Topflite division to Callaway in 2004. Callaway now owns the rights to the Ben Hogan brand. After over a half century and numerous ownership changes, the Ben Hogan line was discontinued by Callaway in 2008.

Ownership timeline[link]

• 1953 - company founded
• 1960 - sold to AMF, Hogan retained as president
• 1984 - sold to Irwin Jacobs for $15 million
• 1988 - sold to Cosmo World of Japan for $55 million, initial sponsor of the Ben Hogan Tour from 1990–92
• 1992 - sold to Bill Goodwin of Richmond, Virginia
• 1997 - sold to Spalding Top-Flite^[15]
• 2003 - sold to Callaway Golf, Hogan line discontinued in 2008

Death[link]

Hogan died in Fort Worth, Texas, and is interred at Greenwood Memorial Park there.

Professional wins[link]

PGA Tour wins (64)[link]

• 1938 (1) Hershey Four-Ball (with Vic Ghezzi)
• 1940 (4) North and South Open, Greater Greensboro Open, Asheville Land of the Sky Open, Goodall Palm Beach Round Robin
• 1941 (5) Asheville Open, Chicago Open, Hershey Open, Miami Biltmore International Four-Ball (with Gene Sarazen), Inverness Invitational Four-Ball (with Jimmy Demaret)
• 1942 (6) Los Angeles Open, San Francisco Open, North and South Open, Asheville Land of the Sky Open, Hale America Open, Rochester Open
• 1945 (5) Nashville Invitational, Portland Open Invitational, Richmond Invitational, Montgomery Invitational, Orlando Open
• 1946 (13) Phoenix Open, San Antonio Texas Open, St. Petersburg Open, Miami International Four-Ball (with Jimmy Demaret), Colonial National Invitation, Western Open, Goodall Round Robin, Inverness Invitational Four-Ball (with Jimmy Demaret), Winnipeg Open, PGA Championship, Golden State Open, Dallas Invitational, North and South Open
• 1947 (7) Los Angeles Open, Phoenix Open, Colonial National Invitation, Chicago Victory Open, World Championship of Golf, Miami International Four-Ball (with Jimmy Demaret), Inverness Invitational Four-Ball (with Jimmy Demaret)
• 1948 (11) Los Angeles Open, PGA Championship, U.S. Open, Inverness Invitational Four-Ball (with Jimmy Demaret), Motor City Open, Reading Open, Western Open, Denver Open, Reno Open, Glendale Open, Western Open
• 1949 (2) Bing Crosby Pro-Am, Long Beach Open
• 1950 (1) U.S. Open
• 1951 (3) Masters Tournament, U.S. Open, World Championship of Golf
• 1952 (1) Colonial National Invitation
• 1953 (5) Masters Tournament, Pan American Open, Colonial National Invitation, U.S. Open, The Open Championship
• 1959 (1) Colonial National Invitation

Major championships are shown in bold.

Source: (Barkow 1989, pp. 261–262)

Other wins[link]

this list is probably incomplete

• 1950 Greenbrier Pro-Am
• 1953 Pan American tournament (Mexico City)
• 1956 World Cup of Golf individual; World Cup of Golf team

Major championships[link]

Wins (9)[link]

Year	Championship	54 Holes	Winning Score	Margin	Runner(s)-up
1946	PGA Championship	n/a	6 & 4	n/a	Ed Oliver
1948	U.S. Open	2 shot lead	-8 (67-72-68-69=276)	2 strokes	Jimmy Demaret
1948	PGA Championship (2)	n/a	7 & 6	n/a	Mike Turnesa
1950	U.S. Open (2)	2 shot deficit	+7 (72-69-72-74=287)	Playoff 1	George Fazio, Lloyd Mangrum
1951	Masters Tournament	1 shot deficit	-8 (70-72-70-68=280)	2 strokes	Skee Riegel
1951	U.S. Open (3)	2 shot deficit	+7 (76-73-71-67=287)	2 strokes	Clayton Heafner
1953	Masters Tournament (2)	4 shot lead	-14 (70-69-66-69=274)	5 strokes	Ed Oliver
1953	U.S. Open (4)	1 shot lead	-5 (67-72-73-71=283)	6 strokes	Sam Snead
1953	The Open Championship	Tied for lead	-6 (73-71-70-68=282)	4 strokes	Antonio Cerdá, Dai Rees, Frank Stranahan, Peter Thomson

Note: The PGA Championship was match play until 1958
¹ Defeated Mangrum and Fazio in 18-hole playoff: Hogan 69 (-1), Mangrum 73 (+3), Fazio 75 (+5).

Results timeline[link]

NT = No tournament
DNP = Did not play
WD = Withdrew
CUT = missed the half-way cut
R64, R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in PGA Championship match play
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

Summary[link]

• Starts - 57
• Wins - 9
• 2nd place finishes - 6
• Top 3 finishes - 17
• Top 5 finishes - 25
• Top 10 finishes - 40
• Longest streak of Top 10s in majors - 18

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	World War II portal
	Golf portal

• Career Grand Slam Champions
• Golfers with most PGA Tour wins
• Golfers with most major championship wins
• Most PGA Tour wins in a year
• Longest PGA Tour win streaks
• Most wins in one PGA Tour event

References[link]

• Barkow, Al (1989). The History of the PGA TOUR. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-26145-4 
• "Ben Hogan: "Players Were Afraid"" (1999). In ESPN SportsCentury. Michael MacCambridge, Editor. New York: Hyperion ESPN Books. pp. 142–3.
• "Ben Hogan: An American Life" (2004). James Dodson. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-50312-1.

External links[link]

• Ben Hogan's Official Site
• Ben Hogan - Daily Telegraph obituary
• World Golf Hall of Fame profile
• Ben Hogan Photos By A Ravielli Taken For The 5 Lessons of Golf
• Ben Hogan on About.com Profile, stats and quotes
• Ben Hogan Profile at Golf Legends
• Ben Hogan at Find a Grave

Ben Hogan in the Ryder Cup v t e United States Ryder Cup captains 1927 Walter Hagen 1929 Walter Hagen 1931 Walter Hagen 1933 Walter Hagen 1935 Walter Hagen 1937 Walter Hagen 1947 Ben Hogan 1949 Ben Hogan 1951 Sam Snead 1953 Lloyd Mangrum 1955 Chick Harbert 1957 Jack Burke, Jr. 1959 Sam Snead 1961 Jerry Barber 1963 Arnold Palmer 1965 Byron Nelson 1967 Ben Hogan 1969 Sam Snead 1971 Jay Hebert 1973 Jack Burke, Jr. 1975 Arnold Palmer 1977 Dow Finsterwald 1979 Billy Casper 1981 Dave Marr 1983 Jack Nicklaus 1985 Lee Trevino 1987 Jack Nicklaus 1989 Raymond Floyd 1991 Dave Stockton 1993 Tom Watson 1995 Lanny Wadkins 1997 Tom Kite 1999 Ben Crenshaw 2002 Curtis Strange 2004 Hal Sutton 2006 Tom Lehman 2008 Paul Azinger 2010 Corey Pavin v t e United States Ryder Cup team – 1947 Herman Barron • Jimmy Demaret • E. J. Harrison • Herman Keiser • Lloyd Mangrum • Byron Nelson • Ed Oliver • Sam Snead • Lew Worsham Ben Hogan (playing captain) Won: 11 – 1 v t e United States Ryder Cup team – 1949 Skip Alexander • Jimmy Demaret • Bob Hamilton • Chick Harbert • E. J. Harrison • Clayton Heafner • Lloyd Mangrum • Johnny Palmer • Sam Snead Ben Hogan (non-playing captain) Won: 7 – 5 v t e United States Ryder Cup team – 1951 Skip Alexander • Jack Burke, Jr. • Jimmy Demaret • Clayton Heafner • Ben Hogan • Ed Oliver • Lloyd Mangrum • Henry Ransom Sam Snead (playing captain) Won: 9.5 – 2.5 v t e United States Ryder Cup team – 1967 Julius Boros • Gay Brewer • Billy Casper • Gardner Dickinson • Al Geiberger • Gene Littler • Bobby Nichols • Johnny Pott • Arnold Palmer • Doug Sanders Ben Hogan (non-playing captain) Won: 23.5 – 8.5