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Golf's Greatest Years - Ben Hogan
The Triple Crown in 1953
Posted: Saturday March 31, 2001 10:29 PM
Updated: Tuesday March 26, 2002 6:24 PM
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The Augusta Chronicle |
By John Boyette
The Augusta Chronicle
Whereas Jones and Nelson gave up tournament golf in their prime to focus on other pursuits, Ben Hogan entertained no such thoughts.
Tournament golf was his life.
Hogan peaked in 1953. What he lacked in quantity, Hogan more than made up for in quality. Playing only six tournaments, Hogan won five of them and the victories included the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open.
The feat was called the Triple Crown, and it was a dream year. His career almost was shattered four years earlier when Hogan had a near-fatal crash in Van Horn, Texas. The automobile wreck with a Greyhound bus took Hogan off the tour as a full-time player, but it couldn't crush his competitive spirit.
Hogan's signature season was born out of the frustrations of 1952. A final-round 79 cost him a chance to win the Masters, and he uncharacteristically shot a pair of 74s in the last two rounds of the U.S. Open after holding the 36-hole lead.
When he arrived in Augusta in April 1953, his game was sharp. Hogan shattered the existing 72-hole record at Augusta National, firing rounds of 70, 69, 66 and 69 for a 274 total. It was five strokes lower than the previous mark.
``Oh? That's nice, but I was only trying to win a golf tournament,'' Hogan told reporters after being informed of his record performance.
He continued his solid play after the Masters, winning the Pan American Open in Mexico City by three strokes and then breezed to a five-shot victory at the Colonial in his home town of Fort Worth, Texas.
Like Jones nearly a quarter of a century earlier, Hogan chose to focus on the big events. He would play in only two more events that year - the U.S. Open and the British Open.
Since his accident, Hogan was the king of the U.S. Open. He won back-to-back in 1950 and 1951, and admiration for the quiet but fierce man grew with each victory.
``He was always my hero,'' said Bob Sommers, longtime editor of Golf Journal and author of The U.S. Open: Golf's Ultimate Challenge. ``He was the kind of a guy who when he hit a ball in the bunker, that's the way it should be played.''
Oakmont Country Club, outside Pittsburgh, was the site for the U.S. Open. A rugged, demanding course, Oakmont was no match for Hogan's game in the opening round. He scorched it with a 67 and added an even-par 72 in the second round.
In those days, the U.S. Open held the final 36 holes on a single day. Open Saturday, as it was called, was a grueling test for anyone, but even more so for Hogan. Early in the third round he struggled, but he managed to hold a one-shot lead over Snead as they prepared for the final round.
But Snead, who never did win the U.S. Open, skied to a 76 in the final round. The match had been close through the first nine holes, but Hogan pulled away and played the final three holes in nine strokes for a 1-under 71.
Hogan's six-stroke victory was his fourth triumph in the U.S. Open, matching the record held by Jones and Willie Anderson. (Jack Nicklaus would later win four U.S. Open titles to match the record).
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| Ben Hogan |
Age : 40
Victories : 5
- Masters Tournament
- Pan-American Open
- Colonial
- U.S. Open
- British Open
Earnings : $18,604
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Next up was the British Open at Carnoustie. Hogan went over to Scotland three weeks early to get used to the course, the weather and the smaller British ball.
The preparation paid off, as Hogan eased to a four-stroke victory with rounds of 73, 71, 70 and 68.
Although the Scots adored Hogan, he wasn't too keen on the course. It was his first, and last, appearance at the British Open.
``I've got a lawn mower back in Texas, I'll send it over,'' Hogan said after winning.
Upon his return to New York, the ``Wee Ice Mon'' was greeted with a ticker-tape parade. It was the first time a golfer had been so honored since Jones in 1930.
Contrary to popular belief, Hogan was not able to play in the PGA Championship and the British Open. All golfers had to qualify for the British Open in that era, even a golfer of Hogan's stature, and the dates overlapped.
``Nobody could,'' said Sommers, who noted in his book that the final round of the PGA and the second round of the British Open qualifying were both held on July 7, 1953. ``He probably wouldn't have played any how.''
Hogan got the most out of the majors that he could have hoped for. For the record, Walter Burkemo defeated Felice Torza 2&1 for the PGA Championship at Birmingham (Mich.) Country Club.
Early on, Hogan had decided he would play the British in lieu of the PGA Championship. It was conventional wisdom back then that his legs could not stand up to the 36-hole matches of the PGA, but few realized that both the U.S. and British opens required 36-hole qualifying that year.
Others aren't so sure that Hogan would not have won all four.
``He probably would have won the Grand Slam if they hadn't stupidly held the PGA at the same time,'' said Sports Illustrated's Van Sickle.
Like Jones and Nelson before him, Hogan's best year would also produce his final victory in a major. Unlike those two, Hogan continued to play major championship golf into his 50s and was a factor in virtually every U.S. Open through 1960.
But despite those disappointments, including a playoff loss to Snead in the 1954 Masters, Hogan left his stamp on the game. A set of golf clubs that were immensely popular and one of the game's definitive instruction books, Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf, were both part of the Hogan legacy.
In those years after World War II - before Palmer, Nicklaus and Player - golf and its colorful cast of characters were starting to get more and more recognition. Hogan stood above all.
``Hogan came at a time when we were in a postwar boom,'' said Golfweb.com's Hauser. ``We wanted that. Dwight David Eisenhower was the first of our heroes. And Ben Hogan was one of them.''
Sommers concurs.
``There was just something about the guy,'' he said. ``There was a color to him in that he was colorless. He was not Snead, not outgoing.
``But there was some magnetism to him. When you were watching him, you knew you were watching the best in the game.''
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