Ben Hogan Quotes

As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round.

If you can’t outplay them, outwork them.

When a golfer has completed his left-hand grip, the V formed by the thumb and forefinger should point to his right eye.

A well hit golf shot is a feeling that goes up the shaft, right through your hands and into your heart.

He was a comforting constant, like Radio 4, Big Ben and ‘Land of Hope and Glory

There are no shortcuts on the quest for perfection.

Up to a considerable point, as I see it, there’s nothing difficult about golf, nothing. I see no reason, truly, why the average golfer, if he goes about it intelligently, shouldn’t play in the 70s

As the great golfer Ben Hogan once said, “Golf is a game of luck. And the harder I work, the luckier I get.

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In rich detail, Ken told us that on the second hole of the opening round, Hogan got stuck while standing over a putt. Hogan had the yips. “I can’t take it back, Ken,” Hogan said. “Nobody gives a shit, Ben,” Ken said back. That bit of wise-guy humor was evidently all Hogan needed to hear: At age fifty-three and playing barely any tournament golf, he finished twelfth. Venturi finished three shots behind. Palmer was leading by seven with nine holes left and lost to Billy Casper in a playoff. Ken

PERFECTION, OF COURSE, is a cruel god. It requires the kind of absolute devotion and daily sacrifice that is the sworn enemy of personal emotion and intimacy with others, even—and maybe especially—one’s loyal ladywife.

Ben Hogan, in a phrase I always liked, talked about how he “dug his game out of the dirt.

It makes me pine for the time when Ben Hogan was the dominant figure in golf. Among Hogan’s many distinctions was this: almost no one thought of him as supremely talented. He was respected for the hard work he put into his game.

You might think that it would be easier for a player to go it alone. That, after all, is part of the Ben Hogan legend, and Hogan was one of the all-time greats. The legend has it that he worked by himself to perfect his swing, putting in countless hours of lonely practice to achieve near-perfection.

Legendary golfer Ben Hogan is said to have prepared for majors by playing worst-ball scramble. At the peak of his career, Greg Norman practiced using worst-ball scramble. “I’d play two golf balls, and you always had to hit the worst shot. So if you hit a great drive, you had to hit the next drive great, too,” Norman said. “The best score I remember playing was 72. So, it really makes you concentrate.” According to our simulation, a typical tour pro would average about 80 playing worst-ball scramble on a championship course. A golfer’s best worst-ball score is lower than his average by about eight strokes, so Norman’s best worst-ball score of 72 is perfectly consistent with our simulation results. Hall

golfer Ben Hogan wrote, "I stopped trying to do a great many difficult things perfectly because it had become clear in my mind that this ambitious over-thoroughness was neither possible nor advisable, or even necessary."3

THE RIGHT-HAND GRIP IS A FINGER GRIP. THE TWO FINGERS WHICH SHOULD APPLY MOST OF THE PRESSURE ARE THE TWO MIDDLE FINGERS.

After missing the cut at the 1957 Masters because of poor putting, Hogan retired to the clubhouse and suggested that putting should no longer be a part of the game. “If I had my way,” Hogan grumbled, “every golf green would be made into a huge funnel. You hit the funnel and the ball would roll down a pipe into the hole. I’ve always considered that golf is one game,” Hogan added, “and putting another.

If you can’t outplay them, out-work them” -- Ben Hogan