The Wee Man (Biography)

Name: kenjohn

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Product:	Biography
Date:	05/05/04 (3988 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent, well written, well researched biography.

Disadvantages: Not a thing

~ ~ Ben Hogan was born in 1912 in Dublin, Ohio, the youngest of three children. His father owned the local blacksmith?s shop, and there was nothing in the young Hogan?s childhood that would have indicated that as an adult he would become (arguably) the greatest professional golfer of the 20th century.
He has long been one of my favourite golfers, and although I never had the opportunity to see him play in the flesh during his heyday in the late 1940?s and 1950?s, I was regaled during my early years on stories of his various achievements and exploits by my late father.

~ ~ But Ben Hogan was an enigma. A man who played golf like a god, and who achieved fantastic success in his life both on and off the golf course, he was also a private man who shunned the limelight, and who had an abiding hatred for the media and press all his life.
He never played to the gallery, and in all his years as a professional golfer it was rare sight indeed to see his granite like features crease into a smile. Not for Hogan the clench-fist antics of today?s pros! That is, if you could even see his features at all, through the constant cloud of cigarette smoke that perpetually surrounded him. (He smoked up to 40 unfiltered ?Chesterfield? cigarettes each round of golf he played!)
As a consequence a legend grew up around the man, as sports writers, journalists, and the media tried desperately to break through his teak-hard veneer to satisfy the craving of an adoring public for more knowledge of their sporting hero. This was never managed with any degree of success.
So I was fascinated when I happened across a biography of the late Hogan in my local bookstore recently, by an American author called Curt Sampson. I was also delighted to discover that it was in the ?bargain bin?, and could be purchased for only ?5 (cover price $24.95) for the hardback version.


~ ~ This is the first book by the author Curt Sampson that I have read, but he is a sports writer of some distinction in his native United States, and the author of many other golf books; ?The Eternal Summer?, ?Full Court Pressure?, and a much-acclaimed book about the British Open of 1999 at Carnoustie, Scotland, called ?Royal and Ancient?. His latest book (2004) is a study of the latest phenomenon to hit the golfing world, Tiger Woods, and is called ?Chasing Tiger?.
He?s also a decent golfer in his own right, having achieved success at college and amateur level, although, on his own admission, he was a ?dud? as a touring and later club professional. In recent times, he twice won the prestigious Golf Writers Association of America annual tournament. I think the fact that Sampson is a golfer is an essential ingredient for writing a biography of a golfer like Hogan, as it gives him the insight and understanding both of the sport and the golfer himself that would be lacking in somebody with no intimate knowledge of the game.

~ ~ Sampson managed to get some small amount of co-operation from Hogan, which is more than any other author had ever managed.
Hogan was notorious for his reluctance to talk to ANY writer?s or journalists, and this becomes apparent when you look at the number of other golfing books written about other outstanding stars of the sport. There are currently 36 titles about Sam Snead, some 30 books about the late, great legend Bobby Jones, 45 about Jack Nicklaus, and 46 about Arnold Palmer. In stark contrast there are only 5 books about Ben Hogan, two of which are instruction manuals written by the great man himself! (The Modern Fundamentals of Golf (1957) by Hogan is still the world's No. 1 best-selling
golf instruction book, even today.)
Most of Sampson?s material for the biography was obtained in the same way Hogan liked to describe his golf game. ?He dug it from the ground?. He meticulously researched this book, talking to hundreds of Hogan?s friends, fellow professional golfers, and digging around in old records from his youthful years.

~ ~ What I enjoyed most about this book was the amount of hitherto unknown and unpublished material that Sampson managed to dig up about the great man.
All golf fans already know about his near-fatal car crash in February of 1949, when he was finally beginning to achieve the golfing success he so craved. But Sampson gives his readers all the ?gory details?.
His Cadillac was involved in a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus in foggy conditions, and Hogan threw himself across his beloved wife Val seconds before the impact to try to protect her from serious injury. He succeeded, but at an awful cost to himself. His left arm was nearly severed at the shoulder, and his left leg and ankle were mangled almost beyond recognition. He broke his pelvis, a number of ribs, and nearly lost his left eye. (The sight in the eye was never the same again, although the doctors managed to save it) Due to the remote location of the accident, it was over 90 minutes before any qualified medical personnel attended to Hogan!
But despite being told in no uncertain terms that his professional golfing career was almost certainly at an end, Hogan was swinging a golf club again almost before he was even able to stand steadily on his injured legs! That the greatest wins of his golfing career came AFTER the accident is an abiding testament to the courage and fortitude of the man. (Plus his notorious stubborn streak, and inability to ever throw in the towel.)
Sampson goes into great detail about
this period of Hogan?s life, chronicling his amazing fight for recovery, and his return to tournament play in January 1950, when he tied for first place with Sam Snead. (Only to lose the 18-hole playoff)
And he describes in detail what was perhaps his greatest ever win. The 1951 US Open Championship at Merion Golf Club in Pennsylvania, only 16 short months after he had literally lain at death?s door!

~ ~ The author also goes into great detail about Hogan?s early life as a boy and young man, and how he first took an interest in golf through caddying at his local golf club. This was particularly interesting, as I?d never read anything at all about Hogan?s early years before.
His father committed suicide by shooting himself with a revolver, and the young Ben witnessed the whole thing. He was all of nine-years-old at the time, and Sampson speculates on the catastrophic and devastating effect this must have had on the boy, and how much it affected his seeming inability to trust people in his later life. He left school early, and started his working life selling newspapers in the local railway station, before discovering he could make more money carrying golfer?s bags at his local club. It was here that he first picked up a golf club, and became totally infatuated with the sport that would later make him world famous.

~ ~ Another fact that Sampson reveals about which I wasn?t previously aware is that Hogan didn?t particularly show great promise as a young player. He was good, but suffered from a vicious hook, (the ball ducks quickly to the left) and despite turning professional at the tender age of 17, it was many years before he made any sort of impact on the professional tour.
Hogan was renowned for the amount of time he spent practicing, at a time when professional golfers practiced rarely. (If at all!) Sa
mpson quotes the old saw about Hogan, ?Hogan used to hit balls until his hands bled?, but then goes on to fill in the big picture of what this actually meant. Practically every day of his life, right up until his mid-70?s, Ben Hogan hit 600 practice balls every morning, played a full round of golf every afternoon, and then hit yet another 600 practice balls after his game! Sampson speculates that perhaps Hogan suffered from a compulsive disorder, which is why he practiced so much.
Whatever the reason, it was without question this hard work on the practice tee that contributed the most to his amazing skill at the sport, and put him so far ahead of most of his fellow players.

~ ~ There?s a section on what was unquestionably Hogan?s greatest year in golf, 1953. It was in this year that he won three out of golf?s four Major Championships in the one season. The US Masters, US Open, and the British Open. The only reason he didn?t go on to complete the unobtainable, and win the ?Grand Slam? of Major titles, is that the USPGA Championship at the time was a match play event, which involved playing up to 36 holes of golf every day for a full week. Hogan?s mangled post-accident body (and in particular his legs) simply weren?t up to the task, so rather than having to withdraw at some stage of the competition, he simply didn?t enter at all.

~ ~ I was fascinated reading about his victory at the 1953 British Open at Carnoustie Golf Club in Scotland, the only time he ever played in the tournament!
My late father often told me about watching Hogan play in this event, and how he had never witnessed such an awesome display of golfing talent.
What was even more interesting is that it was the first time Hogan had ever experienced a ?links? (seaside) golf course, with it?s bouncy, sand
y soil, and fearsome sand dunes and rough. He didn?t like it, and was less than complimentary to the green keeping staff, even offering at one stage to loan the head green keeper his own lawnmower so he could make a proper job of cutting the putting greens!
But his dislike of the golf course didn?t stop him winning the tournament in great style! And the Scottish golfing public took him to their hearts, giving him the affectionate nickname of the ?wee man?. (He was only 5? 8? in height, and weighed less than 12 stones)

~ ~ Sampson also chronicles Hogan?s life after he gave up playing competitive golf, and started up his own golf club manufacturing business. Like anything else he turned his hand to, this was (ultimately) an outstanding success, as Hogan carried over his obsession for playing golf to the utmost of his ability into making the best possible golf clubs on the market.
In later years he was looked upon as the ?elder statesman? of the sport, and offered many honorary positions, such as hitting the first tee shot each year at the US Masters. But Hogan would have none of this, and instead spent his twilight years at his local Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth. He could be found watching American football on the large TV in the lounge, with a drink in one hand and his ever-present Chesterfield cigarette in the other.
Ben Hogan eventually passed on in 1997 at the ripe old age of 84, but he will never be forgotten. His golfing record speaks for itself. 63 tournament victories in total, and 9 Major Championships. To this day, only the great Jack Nicklaus (18 Major wins) and Walter Hagen (11 Major wins) have surpassed him in the amount of Majors won.

~ ~ If you have any interest whatsoever in the game of golf then this excellent biography of Ben Hogan by Curt Samps
on is one that you are sure to thoroughly enjoy. Highly recommended by the mad cabbie.

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Hardcover: 288 pages (First Printed in 1996. 2nd printing in 2001)

Publisher: Rutledge Hill Press

ISBN: 1558533877

Price: Cover price $24.95 (Available at Amazon UK for only £11.99)

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© KenJ May 2004

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