The ep29 Bantam Ben Hogan

This is Jimmy Powers ready to bring you another story from the Tumalt and the Shoutings. This is Jimmy Powers with another transcribed Grantlin Rice story taken from the Tumalt and the Shoutings. Today's story is entitled Bantam Ben Hogan, and I'd like to narrate it in first person.

The first time I saw Hogan around 1937, he was practicing a wedge shot some 90 yards from the pin. He had been there an hour. He stayed much longer, placing the ball in good lies and bad.

He hit many close to the cup, inches away. What I want to do, he said, is to make a habit of hitting them all close to the cup. Golf or winning golf should be the habit of hitting every ball well.

There is no reason to miss a shot. After he once hit his stride and on through to the present moment, Hogan has, I believe, hit fewer bad shots over a period of years than any other golfer.

He is practically always putting for a par or a birdie, more often for a birdie. This didn't help Ben too much when he wasn't putting too well. So he started to work on his putting, and you defined him at it hour after hour, month after month.

There was a time around 1946 when I thought Ben was verging on serious trouble, a kind that could become a habit. It was the mist short put. In April of 1946, Hogan came to the last hole at the Augusta National with a four to tie the leader for the title in the Masters.

He hit a magnificent drive. His iron also hit the pin and stopped just 12 feet beyond the cup. He rimmed the cup with a 3, but the ball drifted 18 inches below. Then he missed this one for his 4. About 2 months later at Canterbury the same thing happened. Again he needed a 4 to tie for the US Open. Again a great drive, a great iron second, another