Hogan’s Two Great Tips
Day 6 on “Ben Hogan's Five Lessons"
“We’ll have a lot of fun.”
Hogan said, “Every golfer must expect to experience ups and downs. Being human, you cannot always be at the peak of your game.”
It’s what you do when you’re down that counts.
When the sportswriter, Dan Jenkins, was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, he told a story that gets to the heart of Hogan’s words. Dan knew Hogan better than any writer. They played golf all the time in the 1950s.
One day, Hogan called and said, “I’m playing in an exhibition and I want you in the foursome.”
Dan said, “Ben, there's got to be somebody better than me.”
Hogan insisted. “We’ll have a lot of fun,” he promised.
Dan went to the golf course. He almost dropped his bag when he saw 3,000 fans lining the fairway and Hogan calmly smoking a cigarette on the first tee.
Hogan’s sense of humor.
Dan said, “I somehow got off the tee without injuring myself. Then I topped a 3-wood, topped another 3-wood and scraped a 5-iron. I must have looked like I was swatting mosquitos.”
He heard people laugh in the gallery. Someone said, “How did this guy get out here?”
Then Dan noticed Hogan walking beside him. Hogan said, “You can probably swing faster if you try hard enough.”
Dan laughed out loud. He said, “I slowed down and got around in under 80. It was the greatest golf tip under those conditions I’ve ever had. And it proves Ben Hogan had a sense of humor.”
“Well, keep working at it.”
Another time, after playing 18 holes, Hogan said, “You keep the ball in the fairway and you’re a good putter. But everything in between is a mystery.”
He then made an astounding offer. He said, “If you work with me three days a week for the next four months, you’ll be good enough to play in the U.S. Amateur.”
Dan was stunned. He said, “Ben, I’m embarrassed to turn down golf lessons from the greatest player in the world, but I just want to be a sportswriter. That’s all I ever wanted.”
Dan still remembers that moment. He said, “Hogan looked at me with that cold stare. I waited and it seemed like an eternity. Then he smiled and said, ‘Well, keep working at it.’”
Dan laughed. Another great tip—and more proof that Hogan had a great sense of humor.
The author Lucas Remmerswaal said, “Persistence is like a Genie that creates a magical force in your life.”
We don’t like to fess up to this fact, but we ruin some scorecards because we get discouraged and we lose some dreams because we stop working.
The simple tips that Hogan gave to Dan Jenkins not only made him laugh, they encouraged him to stay on track. As Hogan said, we have to expect ups and downs; we can’t always be at our peak. But we can always take positive action and keep working—and in the end, that will change our scores, our handicaps, and our lives.
That’s all for now. Until next time, keep imagining what’s possible.