Ben Hogan is a golf legend. The former PGA professional won 69 tournaments during his long career. Of those wins, 64 came on the PGA Tour, placing Hogan fourth all-time in event wins. He is one of the few golfers to ever win the grand slam. It was a feat he completed in 1953 after winning the Open Championship for the first and only time.
Hogan turned professional in 1930. It was an era in which golf clubs lacked the same capabilities golfers enjoy today. Theories abound that Hogan had a ‘secret’ way of swinging his golf clubs that allowed him to gain distance and ball control. His swings were always consistent and his play influenced magazines to write articles about his ‘secret’ swing. It was believed other golfers could emulate it and rise to Hogan’s level.
It took Hogan 16 years after turning professional to win his first ever major. The win came in 1946 at the PGA Championship. Hogan was 34-years old win he won it. Suddenly, the major victories came in short succession. In an eight-year period, Hogan won all nine of his major titles. The figure makes Hogan fourth all-time in major wins.
Interestingly, many golf historians believe Hogan should be awarded a 10th major championship victory. He won the 1942 Hale America Open, a tournament that substituted for the U.S. Open that year. Historians believe Hogan should be awarded a fifth U.S. Open championship due to his win.
Hogan was named PGA Player of the Year on four occasions between 1948 and 1953. In the 1940s, he dominated the PGA Tour leading money winner list, topping it on five occasions from 1940 to 1948. Hogan retired from golf in 1971 after 41 years of playing professionally. Three years later, Hogan was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. The legendary golfer passed away on July 25, 1997 in Fort Worth, Texas of a stroke. It came just two years after undergoing surgery in his fight against colon cancer.
Ben Hogan’s Major Wins
| Years | Masters | US PGA | U.S. Open | Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1946 | ✕ | ✅ | ✕ | ✕ |
| 1948 | ✕ | ✅ | ✅ | ✕ |
| 1950 | ✕ | ✕ | ✅ | ✕ |
| 1951 | ✅ | ✕ | ✅ | ✕ |
| 1953 | ✅ | ✕ | ✅ | ✅ |
Masters Wins: 2
For a lot of golfers that have won more than one Major, the Masters Tournament often proves to be the one that got them off the ground. That isn’t the case with Ben Hogan, who had already won multiple PGA Championships and US Opens by the time he got his first green jacket. That being said, it might well have been the competition that sparked his most successful year as a golfer, following victory at Augusta National in 1953 with wins in the US Open and the Open Championship to win the ‘Triple Crown’. His first seven appearances at Augusta saw him make the cut, then he won it on two out of the following three occasions.
1951 – Score of 280 Secures Two Stroke Win
Having finished tied for fourth a year earlier, Ben Hogan headed to Augusta National in 1951 knowing that he had what it took to win the competition and was determined to go one better than his second-place finishes in 1942 and 1946. He sat in fourth at the end of the first day’s play thanks to a -2 score of 70, then moved to tied-second after a par 72 on the Friday. He remained one off the top at the end of the third round, but carded a bogey-free 68 on the Sunday in order to leapfrog Skee Riegel, who posted a 71, and Sam Snead who had a disastrous 80. Hogan’s first green jacket came courtesy of a total score of 280 over the week, two shots clear of second.
1953 – Record -14 Score Seals Second Green Jacket
It is fair to say that 1953 is one of the best years not just of Ben Hogan’s career, but of any golfer’s. As of 2024, no other golfer has managed to win the Masters, US Open and Open Championship in the same year. That’s what Hogan did though, with the 40-year-old getting things underway by carding a -2 score of 70 on day one. The Friday saw him move from tied-forth to first on his own when he scored a 69, then a 66 on the Saturday set a record after 54 holes. Another 69 on the final day saw him post a total of 274 for the week, which was -14 and five shots clear of second. It was a new Masters record, which stood for 12 years.
PGA Championship Wins: 2
The PGA Championship will have held a special place in Ben Hogan’s heart, given the fact that it was the first of the Majors that he won. It worked in a different way when he first started playing it, being more like a cup competition as it was match play until 1958. His first attempt saw him make to the round of 16, then he had three quarter-final finishes in the years leading up to the point that it was stopped because of the outbreak of the Second World War. When the competition resumed in 1946 he won it, doing so again two years later before not playing in it at all in the 1950s after a car crash, and missing the cut when he returned in 1960.
1946 – 6&4 Win Over Ed Oliver in Final
Having served as a lieutenant in the US Army Air Forces between the March of 1943 and the June of 1945, Hogan headed to Portland Golf Club in Oregon to take part in the 1946 PGA Championship. The match play format of the event meant that players had to play 12 rounds across seven days, with Hogan defeating Frank Moore 5&4 in the quarter-finals and then winning 10&9 against Jimmy Demaret in the semi-finals. With Ed Oliver winning 1up against Byron Nelson and defeating Jug McSpaden 6&5, it set up a cracking final that Hogan won 6&4 across two rounds of golf on the same day on the 25th of August.
1948 – Mike Turnesa Defeated 7&6
Two years later and Hogan was once again the PGA Championship winner, this time thanks to success at Norwood Hills Country Club in St. Louis, Missouri. There were 133 players at the start of the tournament, taking on the gruelling 36 holes a day in the summer heat that caused Hogan to bypass it after his accident until it became a stroke-play event in 1958. Ten years earlier and he defeated Chick Harbert 2&1 in the quarter-final, then repeated his trick from two years before when he knocked Jimmy Demaret out by the same score as Harbert. That set up a final with Mike Turnesa, which Hogan won 7&6 over the two rounds.
US Open Wins: 4
There are numerous reasons why Ben Hogan will always be closely associated with the US Open, not the least of which is the fact that he won it four times. One of the other reasons is that Hy Peskin, who was a staff photographer for Sports Illustrated, took a photo of Hogan playing a 1-iron onto the green at the final hole of the competition in 1950 that went on to be considered one of the best shots of sport taken in the 20th century. He was, perhaps, always like to win it, given that his worst position before doing so was tied-sixth in 1947, having finished tied-fifth in his debut year and tied-third then tied-fourth in the two that followed.
1948 – Record Score of 276 Stands for 19 Years
Played at the Riviera Country Club in California, the 1948 US Open was Hogan’s first win in the competition at a course that was later dubbed ‘Hogan’s Alley’. It was his third Major and set a new record in the tournament, beating the previous one by five strokes. He led at the end of the first round thanks to a -4 score of 67, then dropped to tied-second after a second day 72. It was back to the 60s on the morning of the Saturday, scoring 68 and heading back to the top. When he scored 69 in the final round on the Saturday afternoon, it became the first time someone had scored three rounds in the 60s at the US Open.
1950 – The “Miracle at Merion” After Serious Car Accident
Having suffered a life-changing injury just a year or so before, it was feared that the best days of golf for Hogan were over. The 18-hole play-off win over Lloyd Mangrum and George Fazio proved that that wasn’t the case, however, in a Merion Golf Club performance that became known as the ‘Miracle at Merion’. He was outside the top ten at the end of the first round, then moved to fifth after following up his 72 with a 69, putting him one over par. Another 72 wasn’t ideal, yet a final day 74 set up the three-way play-off. Hogan finished with a score of 69, which was -1, whilst the others both finished over par, handing him the win.
1951 – Two Stroke Victory at “The Monster” of Oakland Hills
Hogan arrived at Oakland Hills Country Club as the defending US Open champion, taking on the South Course and the 159 other players on a course that was dubbed ‘The Monster’, such was the tough nature of its play in the opening few rounds. That might explain why Hogan didn’t trouble the top ten on either of the opening two days of the tournament, carding a 76 and then a 73. He put in a round of 71 on the Saturday to move him to tied-fifth, with his score of +10 being within two of the lead. It was Hogan who mastered the course the best, getting a final day 67 to move him two shots clear of second and claim his third US Open.
1953 – Six Shot Win with Sam Snead Second
Oakmont Country Club was the venue for Hogan’s fourth and final US Open, tying the record for wins in the competition. In spite of being a former champion, he had to go through qualifying on the Tuesday and Wednesday in field of 300. He opened his tournament proper with a 67, giving him the lead at -5, which he maintained after shooting a par 72 on day two. He remained in the lead at the end of the third day thanks to a one over par 73, putting him on -4 heading into the final day. He shot a 71 to move back to -5 for the week, having shot 283 in total, handing him the win by six shots over Sam Snead in second place.
Open Championship Wins: 1
The is an argument to be made that a golfer can only be considered to be a true great if he wins an Open Championship during his career. That is due to the fact that life on a links course in the United Kingdom is significantly different to playing on the much more generous American courses. Regardless, it is a fate that Ben Hogan achieved in his most successful ever year of 1953. What makes Hogan’s win in 1953 all the more impressive was the fact that it was the only time that he entered the Open, meaning that he boasted a 100% success rate in the competition, largely due to the physical demands of travelling after his car accident.
1953 – Four Stroke Win in Sole Open Appearance
Played on Carnoustie Golf Links’ Championship Course, the 1953 Open Championship provided Hogan with the opportunity to do something that no other golfer had done: win three Majors in the same year. Such is the difficulty of it that, at the time of writing, only Tiger Woods has done the same, but they were different tournaments in 2000. Hogan shot one over par 73 on the opening day, but moved to level par heading into the weekend after carding a 71 on the Thursday. Friday morning saw him move level first with a 70, then the Friday afternoon saw him score 68, which was -6 for the week, winning by four strokes.