Ben Hogan was the greatest player of his era. His early years as a touring professional were not flush with success and he went broke more than once. He didn’t win his first pro tournament until 1940, nine years after turning pro.

Throughout the lean years, Hogan battled a fearsome hook, which he eventually cured by hard work on the range. It has often been said that Hogan discovered his winning swing buried in the dirt at the practice range.

Hogan was known to practise more than any of his contemporaries. “You hear stories about me beating my brains out practising,” said Hogan. “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.”

Known as ‘The Hawk’, Hogan possessed fierce determination and an iron will, which not only helped him win major championships but it also saw him survive the horrific injuries sustained in a car accident in 1949. Doctors were amazed he wasn’t killed and they would have given him no chance of playing golf again. The following year he won the second of his four US Open titles.

Interestingly, he won twice as many major championships after the car accident as he did before it. He finished with nine majors to his name, including the three collected in 1953 – the closest anyone has come to winning the modern Grand Slam.

Hogan spent a lifetime discovering the science of his golf swing. Everything he achieved in the game came through perseverance and fortunately the golf scientist in him chose to record his findings in terrific detail.

Hogan’s first book, Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf, is a classic and should be on the book shelf of any student of the golf swing.

It is just over 50 years since that book was first published and Hogan’s fundamentals are as relevant today – particularly to coaches and players – as they were in 1957.

MODERN COACHING

The Hogan era produced a new wave of in-depth golf swing analysis. Hogan’s swing looked different to his peers, while his ball-striking and distance control were a thing to behold.

Unfortunately this analysis was not always based on true models of Hogan’s action. The correct camera angles were difficult to get and were usually taken from oblique or unusual angles simply because Hogan was a very private man and hard to get close to. Most shots were taken at tournaments, particularly swing sequences, and were not posed.

Coaches in Hogan’s era were all trying to explain his simple fast, repetitive, powerful action. This created a whole new language in instruction with words such as supinate, pronate, resistance, lag and loading becoming common descriptions of positions in
Hogan’s swing.

Noted artist Anthony Ravielli drew Hogan’s swing in great detail, including muscle and skeletal motion in his instructional books, Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf and Power Golf (both books are still widely available). In these books, Hogan, like all authors, students and instructors of the game, tried to explain his feelings of what he did. However, all golfers can relate to the fact that what we feel we do and actually do can be two very different things.

Hogan’s swing before World War II was very long, loose and was plagued with a shut clubface. He moved off the ball with his upper body and increased the radius (the distance of the clubhead from the centre of the torso) of the arms and club, which produced a hooking motion.

He developed his fade swing to give him more consistency and accuracy, control of ball spin, trajectory and distance control.

Hogan was a great believer in controlling the trajectory of his ball. Hogan achieved this by changing his body angles and weakening his grip at address. This changed the sequence of what moved first. The new set-up had the club and arms moving first instead of his old one-piece left-sided takeaway.

The analysis of Hogan’s post-war swing had coaches searching for a ‘secret’ move. It was this search for the secret that blinded most people to the overall pattern Hogan created with his upper and lower body, his arm direction and wrist angles in relation to his body angles.

Even today more so-called secrets are emerging. The latest is the ‘secret’ lateral move Hogan made towards the target with his hips before the backswing finished. Hence, his influence is still felt among the teachers of today.

The difficulty with motion is in its description. It becomes isolated into pieces such as backswings, downswings, shift, rotation, coil, lag, plane etc. The secret is not in one particular part of the swing, it is in where the swing starts and in which order and
direction the parts move in.

TODAY’S PLAYERS

Hogan’s influence on players of today can be seen as about the same as the influence he has had on coaching across the board.

Very few of today’s top players look like Hogan, but some – maybe about five percent – have bits they have copied or learned. Hogan had a shallow path, low hands with a high right side at impact, fast arm speed and a rectangular follow-through. Few players are able to achieve this, and today very few coaches are able to teach this due to the great need for distance over ball control as dictated by the course designers and major tours around the world. Also, greens these days are softer, the equipment makes the ball go straighter and further, while the athleticism of the players is reaching never-before-seen levels.

Perhaps some of Hogan’s greatest influences on the modern game are in the areas of professionalism and competitiveness. Today’s players are working out in the gym and practising harder than ever before. Hogan was well known as one of the hardest working players both on the range and on his body, preparing himself as well as he possibly could.

Hogan was known as the ‘Hawk’ because of his steely stare and fierce competitive nature. This same hawk-like appearance or demeanour can be seen in today’s champions like Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson and, of course, Tiger Woods.
Indeed the greatest player today appears to be heading down a similar path to Hogan.

Tiger has continually evolved his game along the same lines as Hogan. Although he was winning golf tournaments from three years of age, his technique was always erratic.

In recent years, we have seen Tiger minimise his extra motion as Hogan did. Strangely enough they both began their careers with a shut, across-the-line motion including lots of leg drive and changes to the level of the shoulders and hips. Both men also fought the hook. However, Tiger was still able to win and dominate like no other player with this swing.

Tiger seeks perfection as Hogan did, despite those around the golfing world continually questioning his drive to change and get better. But he is determined to beat Jack Nicklaus’ major record and become the best player of all time.

For more information purchase a copy of the May Issue of Golf Australia.

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