On the 11 June, 1950, the American professional golfer, William Ben Hogan (1912-1997), generally considered one of the greatest players in the history of the game, won the 50th US Open Golf Championship at the Merion GC, Pennsylvania, which later became known as the ‘Miracle at Merion’. Defeating Lloyd Mangrum by 4 shots, and George Fazio by 6 in an 18 hole playoff, 16 months after surviving a near fatal car accident.
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 ‘Miracle at Merion’, saying ‘there are no 7-iron shots at Merion’.
Noted for his legendary ball-striking ability, Hogan won 9 professional major championships, and is one of only 5 golfers to have won the Masters Tournament (1951,1953), The Open (1953), the US Open (1948,1950,1951,1953), and the PGA Championship (1946,1948).
Born in Stephenville, Texas, the youngest of 3 children. His father was a blacksmith, who committed suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot when Hogan was 9 years old. The family incurred financial difficulties after his father’s suicide, and the children took jobs to help their seamstress mother make ends meet. Ben sold newspapers after school, until a friend introduced him to caddying at the age of 11 at the Glen Garden Country Club, where one of his fellow caddies was Byron Nelson.
Hogan turned pro at the age of 17 at the Texas Open in San Antonio, in 1930. His early career was very difficult, and he went broke more than once. It took a decade before he won his first tournament, when he then won 3 consecutive events. Although it took 10 years for Hogan to secure his first victory, his wife Valerie believed in him, and this helped see him through some tough years when he battled a hook that he later cured.
In 1938, Hogan took an assistant pro job at Century CC in Purchase, New York (1938-1941), and later became head professional at the Hershey Country Club in Pennsylvania.
During his prime (1938-1959), Hogan won 69 pro’ tournaments despite the interruption of his career by World War II, when he served in the US Army Air Forces as a utility pilot at Fort Worth, Texas.
In 1949, Hogan and his wife Valerie survived a near-fatal car accident in a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus at Van Horn Texas, which left Hogan with lifelong circulation problems and other physical limitations. His doctors said he might never walk again, let alone play golf competitively.
Hogan regained his strength by extensive walking and resumed his 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 playoff.
Hogan retired from golf in 1971, and died in Fort Worth, Texas in 1997, aged 84.
11 June, 2019