Ben Hogan, 1953. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-115558).

Hogan, Ben (13 Aug. 1912-25 July 1997), professional golfer, was born William Ben Hogan in Stephenville, Texas, the son of Chester Hogan, a blacksmith, and Clara Williams Hogan, a seamstress. When Hogan was nine, his father shot himself, a trauma that may have contributed to his subsequent reputation as a loner. His mother moved the family to Fort Worth after his father's death, and he and his two siblings worked to help her make ends meet. At age twelve he began caddying and developing his skills as a golfer. Three times--in 1930, 1931, and 1934--he tried to make it as a professional golfer and failed. In 1935 he married Valerie Fox, though his mother did not attend the wedding and never got along with his wife. They had no children.

In 1937, just before he exhausted the family's savings in a fourth attempt at the pro tour, he won $285 in the Oakland Open in California, the turning point in his career. He immediately landed a job as a club professional outside New York City and in 1938 won his first tournament in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Much of his success derived from his intensive practice sessions--he is said to have "invented" practice for touring pros. That enabled him to overcome a serious hook and to develop a left-to-right fade that became, along with his unmatched precision shot making, the key to his mastery. He became known as "Hawk" for his intense concentration and expressionless stare while playing, a concentration aided, according to him, by smoking two packs of cigarettes a day all his life. His intensity was exemplified by a characteristic moment in the 1947 Master's. Hogan was paired with his good friend Claude Harmon, who aced the twelfth hole. Hogan sank a birdie putt of his own--and failed to even acknowledge his friend's hole-in-one. On the course, Hogan was easily recognizable because of his slight stature at five feet eight-and-a-half inches and 150 pounds, which was crowned with his trademark flat white linen cap, and the perfection of his swing, which drew more admirers than that of any other player.

He golfed well in 1940, 1941, and 1942, arguably winning his first major in the latter year when he captured the Hale America Open, sponsored by the U.S. Golf Association (USGA) in place of the U.S. Open, which was suspended during the war. Hogan earned a medal identical to his U.S. Open medals, so one could make a good case for this being in effect the 1942 Open. Although he spent three years in the Army Air Forces stationed in Texas, emerging as a captain, he managed to do a lot of golfing. After the war, at age thirty-three, he became the dominant golfer on the pro circuit, winning nine major titles over the next eight years, beginning with the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) title in 1946. A second PGA title and his first official U.S. Open title followed in 1948. On 2 February 1949 he was severely injured when a Greyhound bus passing in the fog hit his Cadillac head on; by throwing himself in front of his wife to protect her, he avoided being impaled by the steering column. After his recovery he was never able to walk without pain, and his left shoulder hurt continually. His comeback and triumph in the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion, Pennsylvania, was the most satisfying victory of his career. That triumph inspired Hollywood to make its first golf film, Follow the Sun (1951), a syrupy biographical portrait starring Glenn Ford, for which Hogan was a major adviser.

In 1951 he won his first Master's and his third U.S. Open, a legendary triumph at Oakland Hills in Michigan. That course had been made almost impossibly difficult for the tournament, and when Hogan shot a 67 on his final round, arguably the finest round of golf in history, he exulted that he had tamed "the Monster." Two years later his career reached its summit when he became the only golfer ever to win three of the current four "majors" in the same year--the U.S. Open, the Master's, and the British Open. (Bobby Jones had won the U.S. and British Opens and the U.S. and British Amateurs, then considered the four majors, in 1930.) Because of ongoing pain from his accident, he had reduced the number of his tourney appearances, but he won five of the six he entered in 1953. He impressed the Scots that year by winning the only British Open he ever entered; his exploits and his intensity won him the title "the Wee Icemon."

Later in 1953 he started a golf equipment company, and the Ben Hogan line of golf clubs sold well into the 1990s. Though he sold the company to AMF in 1960, he remained as president for many years. His highly regarded instructional book, Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf (1957), was a commercial and pedagogical success. After losing the 1955 U.S. Open in a playoff, he cut back his playing drastically, and, despite a last hurrah at the 1967 Master's when he shot a third-round 66, he faded from the scene, finally retiring officially in 1971. He played his last 18-hole round in 1980 and took his last golf swings toward the end of the decade.

Hogan achieved a remarkable record as a golfer. Five times in the 1940s he led the pro circuit in winnings; three times he won the Vardon Trophy for lowest average score; and he earned his first of four PGA Player of the Year awards. He was one of only four twentieth-century golfers, along with Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Gene Sarazen, to win all four Grand Slam titles during their careers. In all, he won nine majors and a total of 63 tournaments, trailing only Sam Snead (81) and Jack Nicklaus (70) for most victories. In 1988 he was named runner-up to Nicklaus as golfer of the century. Hogan died in Fort Worth.

There have been few significant treatments of Ben Hogan's life. A "coffee table" compilation by Jules Alexander of photographs and articles, The Hogan Mystique, appeared in the mid-1990s. Curt Sampson, Hogan (1996), is the best biographical source; it provides a detailed account of the golfer's life and corrects some misconceptions. An obituary is in the New York Times, 26 July 1997.