Re: Ben Hogan, simple question is he the best?

Well there was a reason they called Byron Nelson "Iron Byron" ..lol..his swing was like a machine. Then there was Al Geiberger, they made a training tape called "Sybervision" of his swing, the idea being to just watch his swing over and over from every angle, to subconsciously incorporate it into your swing. He did have a beautiful swing, it managed to let him play a round of 59 in competition, very few player ever did that, including Hogan, or Nicklaus.

Re: Ben Hogan, simple question is he the best?

Do you not think that Ben Hogan's swing is a little too flat ?

Re: Ben Hogan, simple question is he the best?

Ben was a great player, as was jack as is Tiger and so on and so forth.

This video shows what Bobby was doing long before them. One thing it clarifies is that great swings were not invented by these people, they merely stood on the shoulders of giants:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc1gr...eature=related

Re: Ben Hogan, simple question is he the best?


Nice clip Brian, somebody else posted a Bobby Jones link on here a while back as well.

To my eyes both show a back swing going past parallel and the hips rotating as far as the shoulders (no coiled resistance for power there then ) which probably means that given modern day orthodoxy any reputable coach would try and rebuild Bobby's swing - which is a kind of amusing thought.

Re: Ben Hogan, simple question is he the best?

Only Thing i can say is

Ben Hogan: "Miss a day of Practice one day longer to get better"

I, have seen video of his swing and looks to me like he had a real compact swing with alot of club head speed.

Ciao,
Tim

Re: Ben Hogan, simple question is he the best?

What he said, but only because Woods is a product of Hogan. The same as our future super talents will be products of Tigers drive and determination.

Re: Ben Hogan, simple question is he the best?

I liked that post by Neil18 about "Hogan being the best at being Hogan". That pretty well sums up Hogan's swings, both of them in fact. I have been able to see a lot of the past, and present great swingers' swings. My thought is, and I am not taking a way anything from the others, is that Sam Snead had a pretty good looking swing from start to finish. It just looked so effortless for him to hit a golf ball with. Others may have accomplished more with their over all swings, but Snead's swing was a thing of beauty.

Now when you start equating wins/losses with a certain player's swing, I think you need to look at the impact positions the better players had/have. There are a lot of successful, different swings out there, but it is how the ball arrived at a consistent impact position for various players, that sets the great players apart from the also rans. The ball only does what the club face tells it do at impact. How the club face gets to a more correct impact position, for the various golfers is not relevant. Only that it does is what is important. The better, more successful golfers through out history shared better impact positions. GJS

Re: Ben Hogan, simple question is he the best?

A La 3 Skills

Re: Ben Hogan, simple question is he the best?

hi
i think his book the five fundementals of the golf swing was one of the best books ever. i think the club golfer could read it and understand it, most books before Hogan's were hard to read and i think that his book had more people looking at his swing.
there has been so many books since about his swing and his book but i think his book let the high handicap player belive they could read his book and then play better, and many did learn so much from his book.
i think it helped shape teaching books that followed and most still have the same set-up as Hogan's book.
he was one of the first to tell you not to his it straight down the middle but hit a fade.
a lot of people at the time shot down the idea of handicap player playing a fade and said it was only for the pro player. but i think the book and Hogan's teachings did change the handicap golfer to playing a fade as there bread and butter shot, and through that playing a draw as in "3SK"
before Hogan the handicap player was considered not good enought to play a fade day in and out but Hogan's way of playing proved them wrong.
i think his teaching through his book gave high handicap player hope of playing like Hogan and most played some Hogan type shots on there rounds that made there day and had them going back for more.
i'm sure we have all played that great shot once in a while and thought, "Tiger, Jack or Hogan!" could not of played it better!!!
cheers
Bill

Re: Ben Hogan, simple question is he the best?

I believe there was a player that came before Ben Hogan who was called Wild Bill Hickok (spell?) and that Hogan considered him the best ball striker ever. However he had his heyday before there was a circuit (as the Tour was called then) and that he couldn't putt to save his life.

Another ball striker that shouldn't be forgotten is Moe Norman. His swing look kinds of funny, but his precision was unbeatable.

Re: Ben Hogan, simple question is he the best?

It's far too subjective a question.

I could easily make a case for Greg Norman, Sam Snead, Bobby Jones, Tiger, Gary Player, Johnny Miller.... the list really is a mile long.

What Ben was probably the best at though was the total understanding of what he was doing. He knew best what was good for his swing. No instructor was really needed. Most of the other guys at some point probably sought out some help. Ben just dug it out of the dirt. It's the epitome of most golfers mentality towards improvement today. In many ways it is a righteous mentality since no one knows your swing better than you. Far too many teachers don't teach the player to teach themselves. It's more about lecturing and drawing lines than to give the student what they need to figure things out themselves. And that is why the mentality is still so strong today.