Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collect
AR406-6 05/25/1952 #2672
Winner of the National Invitation Golf Tournament at Colonial Country Club, Fort Worth, Ben Hogan wears the winner's plaid jacket, 05/25/1952
History records that Ben Hogan won nine majors, nine behind the all-time leader Jack Nicklaus and six back of prodigy Tiger Woods.
There is little doubt that had WWII or his near-fatal accident in Van Horn, there would have been more.
For his part, Hogan believed there actually was one more that wasn’t counted. The Hawk went to his grave in 1997 believing he had won 10 majors, and all of his staunchest defenders believe the same.
In 1942, some seven months after the American entry into WWII, the USGA canceled the U.S. Open. However, in an effort to advance the war effort through bond sales, the USGA, the Chicago District Golf Association, and the PGA partnered to conduct a one-time-only event: the Hale America National Open at Ridgemoor Country Club in Chicago.
It included all those qualifiers drawn from 1,600 golfers who had participated in local and sectional qualifiers, just like the U.S. Open. Its field included the best players in the world not serving, including defending U.S. Open champion Craig Wood, who won his national title at Colonial the year before, Masters champion Byron Nelson, and Jimmy Demaret, Lloyd Mangrum, Horton Smith, Jug McSpaden, and Lawson Little. Of the tour’s best players, only Sam Snead could not compete because of military service.
Hogan won, shooting a 17-under par 271 to defeat Demaret by 3 strokes.
Hogan “always felt he had won five [U.S. Opens] because of his victory over a stellar field in the 1942 Hale America Open,” his niece Jacque Hogan Towery in The Brothers Hogan: A Fort Worth History. He received the identical gold medallion given to the National Open winner. Uncle Ben told me late in his life that he deserved recognition for winning five Opens.”
The Hale America win would have given him the record for the most national championships, more than Willie Anderson, Bobby Jones, and Jack Nicklaus.
“All of his life, Uncle Ben felt he won five Opens; he had the medals to prove it. Uncle Ben was very proud of this achievement, and near the end of his life, he still felt deprived of that recognition.”
Well, here are Hogan’s nine official major championships, including his three wins in 1953.
1946 PGA Championship: Defeated Ed Oliver, 6 and 4 | $3,500
Bantam Ben, weighing in at 135 pounds, captured his first (official) major by batting Ed Oliver, at 207 described as “the colorful fat man from Chicago,” 6 and 4 in the match-play finals in Portland. Hogan overcame a three-hole deficit in what historians have called one of the most gripping PGA Championships. Hogan birdied three of his last five holes. On 18, the pair hit nearly identical tee shots. Oliver hit within 25 feet. Hogan worked an 8-iron to within a foot of the hole. Oliver missed and conceded. “I think Ed Oliver is a great player,” Hogan said. “He was certainly not up to his game today, and I was playing a little over mine. That’s the reason I won.”
1948 PGA Championship: Defeated Mike Turnesa, 7 and 6 | $3,500
Hogan won his second PGA title, at Norwood Hills Country Club in St. Louis, charging to a 7 and 6 victory over Mike Turnesa in May. Hogan, who admitted the seven-day competition “has worn me down,” displayed ability as a short-iron player and an excellent putter while going into the final round 4 up. Hogan had a spurt of three consecutive birdies in the early round on Saturday and three more, starting at the 355-yard 13th. Hogan drove to within 30 yards and pitched to within 5 feet for a birdie 3. Two more followed to put more than an arm’s length between him and his challenger.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection. University Texas At Arlington Libraries
1948 U.S. Open: 67-72-68-69—276 (8 under) | $2,000
Hogan broke the U.S. Open scoring record by five strokes with a four-round total of 276 to defeat friend and fellow Texan Jimmy Demaret of Houston by two strokes at Riviera Country Club just south of Los Angeles, which is, in reality, golf’s first “Hogan’s Alley.” Over the course of 18 months, Hogan won three times at hallowed Riviera. His scoring record stood for 19 years, until Jack Nicklaus topped it by a stroke at Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey. In winning, Hogan became the first person since Gene Sarazen in 1922 to have won the PGA Championship and U.S. Open in the same year.
1950 U.S. Open: 72-69-72-72—287 (7 over) | $4,000
The Miracle at Merion and the most iconic photo in golf history of Hogan looking down a 1-iron at No. 18. Some 16 months after his near-fatal accident in Van Horn, Hogan made his comeback complete, besting fellow Lloyd Mangrum and George Fazio in an 18-hole playoff on Sunday. Hogan led Mangrum by a shot through 15 before Mangrum’s wheels came off. He was assessed a two-stroke penalty for picking up his ball while putting to remove a bug. Hogan, his damaged legs wrapped ankle to thigh over the 90 holes, cruised to a four-shot victory.
1951 Masters: 70-72-70-68—280 (8 under)| $3,000
After the 1950 U.S. Open, Hogan played one other event, the Motor City Open, where he finished 12th, and he put the clubs away. Hogan wasn’t seen again until nine months later when he stuck a tee in the ground at the Masters in April. He said in January: “Haven’t played much lately. Weather’s been too funny. You know, hot, then cold, then hot again.” (That sounds eerily familiar.) He trailed rookie Skee Riegel and Sam Snead by 1 stroke heading into the final round. Hogan, 38, played bogey free in shooting a final-round 68 and topping Riegel by two strokes, a victory one writer called a “sensational flourish to one of the great comeback sagas in sports.”
1951 U.S. Open: 76-73-71-67—287 (7 over) | $4,000
Hogan roared from back of the field after two rounds, far transcending even his low expectations. After two rounds at 9-over par, “he was dejected and pessimistic.” However, he got back into the tournament with a 1 over in the third round and fired a 3-under 67 in the final 18 at Oakland Hills Country Club in Birmingham, Michigan, to ease past Clayton Heafner by 2 strokes. He was said to have landed shot after shot into perfect position, and when he reached the slick, undulating greens, “his putter operated as though it were magnetized.” The victory left him unchallenged as the best golfer in the world, having won the U.S. Open in his last three appearances — a feat not achieved since Willie Anderson’s string of victories through 1903-05. Neither the immortal Bobby Jones nor the great Walter Hagen ever won three consecutive attempts.”
1953 Masters: 70-69-66-69—274 (14 under) | $4,000
Hogan began his magical 1953 majors’ season by firing a final-round 69 on a wet, soggy day to break the Masters’ tournament record score by five strokes, eclipsing Ralph Guldahl’s and Claude Harmon’s 279 in 1938 and 1948. Only Ed Oliver stayed within in the same time zone as Hogan. Hogan stayed a couple of extra days in Augusta to play a round with the President. Hogan and President Dwight Eisenhower teamed up against Byron Nelson and Cliff Roberts, a retired New York investment banker. “They all said they had a very nice social game and that nobody shot very well,” the presidential press secretary said. Yeah, right. Well, actually, Nelson had been playing so poorly — for him — that he said he didn’t see any reason to play the upcoming Colonial. Ike reportedly had again failed to break 90. The investment banker … we don’t care. Hogan, we’re guessing had a nice day.
1953 U.S. Open: 67-72-73-71—283 (5 under) | $5,000
“Unshakable” Hogan blew through the field at the Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania, besting Sam Snead by six strokes to become the third man in history to win the U.S. Open four times. At the drivable No. 17, Hogan “put the kindling” on his driver. “I hit it with everything I had,” he said. He was on the green in one, left with a 35-footer. He nursed his putt to within 6 inches, which he tapped in for birdie. Hogan led after every round, the first time that had happened since Jim Barnes in 1921. There was only one challenged left for him. Hogan, said South African Bobby Locke, “should have no trouble at Carnoustie. He is the master of every golf shot. He can meet all conditions.”
1953 British Open: 73-71-70-68—282 (6 under) | $1,400
Despite what he had done in all the years previous, there were many who were unwilling to compare Hogan to the game’s greats until he crossed the Atlantic to prove that he could master the winds and the dunes of Britain’s great seaside courses. Considering the pressure he was under, to prove his place in history, conquering Carnoustie might have been Hogan’s greatest achievement. Battling a case of the flu that reared its ugly head on Saturday, Hogan shot a course-record 68 in the final round for a four-round total of 282, four strokes better than Frank Stranahan, Dai Rees, Australia’s Peter Thomson, and Antonio Cerda. By American standards, the prize winnings were slim, but the winning in Scotland was worth untold sums in prestige.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection. University Texas At Arlington Libraries
SIDEBAR: The Hawk at Colonial
No player has so dominated the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club like the great Ben Hogan. It’s called “Hogan’s Alley” for a reason, after all.
Hogan is the only player to win the tournament, called the Colonial National Invitation Tournament in his days, five times. In addition, at one time or another, he held practically every record at the historic layout, including low tournament round (65) and low front nine (31).
Fittingly, his last PGA Tour victory was at Colonial in 1959. After the age of 50, Hogan made four appearances in consecutive years between 1964-67 and registered finishes of fourth, 10th, fifth, and third. His last appearance at Colonial was in 1970 at age 58.
A look at the Hawk’s five wins at the Charles Schwab Challenge.
1946: 73-72-69-65—279 | Winnings: $3,000
Hogan won the inaugural Colonial National Invitation Tournament with a tournament-low 65 in the final round, a score that would hold as the event record until Dale Douglass’ 63 in 1970. Hogan needed every stroke to win by one shot in overcoming a three-stroke deficit to Dallasite Harry Todd, the low amateur at the U.S. Open at Colonial in 1941. The triumph at Colonial was one of 13 that season for Hogan, an achievement that ranks second only to Byron Nelson’s 18 the year before. Moreover, in the 32 events Hogan played in 1946, he finished first or second in 20.
1947: 68-72-70-69—279 | Winnings: $3,000
Hogan backed up his victory in ’46 with another in 1947 with a 1-under 72-hole total, holding off Toney Penna by a shot. The two were tied after 61 holes. On eight in the final round, Penna bogeyed, while Hogan, playing behind him, dropped an 18-footer on the same hole. On 12, Hogan rolled in a 40-foot birdie, essentially the game winner. Among those finishing four back was South African Bobby Locke, who made history as the first foreign player in the Invitational.
1952: 74-67-71-67—279 | Winnings: $4,000
Hogan, dealing with an aching body, only played in three 72-hole tournaments in 1952. One of them was the seventh Colonial National Invitation Tournament, which fell to Hogan, who scratched and clawed his way to a one-stroke victory by way of poor Raymond Gafford’s collapse on Sunday. Gafford, a Fort Worth resident, gave away a six-shot lead on Hogan by stumbling to an 80 in the final round after 18 holes that morning. “If he’d played his normal game, I couldn’t have beaten him,” Hogan said. “That 67 wouldn’t have done it.” Said one reporter: “All agreed, regardless of the outcome, that nothing so disastrous should happen to such a nice guy as Gafford.”
1953: 73-71-71-67—282 | Winnings: $5,000
“Ben Hogan did it again Sunday,” read a newspaper report, firing a sublime 67 on Sunday in 32 mph gusts to back up his Masters victory by taming a difficult Colonial, winning with a 2-over total. That was five strokes better than Doug Ford and Cary Middlecoff. “Maybe one of these days Ben will be too old to play in this tournament, and the rest of us will have a chance,” Middlecoff said. Hogan wasn’t done, either. In June, he added a U.S. Open title, and in July he corralled Carnoustie to win in his only British Open appearance.
1959: 69-67-77-72—285 | Winnings: $5,000
Hogan, playing what he called the best golf of his life in gusty conditions, captured the last victory of his career by defeating Fred Hawkins in Colonial’s first playoff, topping the adopted Texan by four shots over 18 holes. Hawkins took the lead with two early birdies, but Hogan took over after four holes and never trailed from there. Ironically, Hogan had recently given his friend Hawkins a set of Hogan clubs to play the tournament. Afterward, Marvin Leonard gifted the Leonard Trophy to Hogan in honor of the achievement.
Read more about the legendary Ben Hogan by clicking on the stories headlines below:
