Word: hogans
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...ingredients that Hogan uses are not available to everybody. Some of them are hereditary, handed down from his Irish father, who plied his trade as a blacksmith in Dublin, Texas. Some of them come from his early environment. After his father died (when Ben was nine), he had to fight for everything-including his job as a caddy-and he got used to fighting. The mechanics of his golf came hard. Hogan had little natural talent for the game and was left-handed to boot; in overcoming these handicaps he built up patience and selfdiscipline...
...When Hogan became the game's most successful player-topping all comers in prize money for five seasons-he still lacked some ingredients. He could not leave his work on the golf course, but let his passion for perfection rule his whole existence. His keen eyes noted such minute details as the fact that one knob on a hotel bureau drawer did not match the other. His finicky palate rebelled at restaurant food from Kalamazoo to California; unless a steak was cooked just so, back it would go to the kitchen. Only in his treatment of Valerie, his wife...
...last and perhaps the most important ingredient in Hogan's stew was one the fates added. It happened when he was 36, on a lonely stretch of road in Texas, the night a Greyhound bus crashed head-on into his Cadillac. As he lay in Hotel Dieu hospital in El Paso, down to about 105 Ibs., he had plenty of time to meditate-about the past, the present and the hereafter. When Valerie talked with him during visiting hours, the subject of golf was never mentioned. Asked by a newspaperman if he would ever play again, Hogan answered vaguely...
...first time in his life, Ben Hogan's remarkable will power was beamed at something less tangible than hitting a golf ball. Back home in Fort Worth, bandaged from hip to ankle, he began the prescribed exercises. He insisted on removing and replacing the bandages himself because, after a little practice, he felt he could do it better than the doctors...
...announced casually that he was going over to the club to hit a few golf balls-and would Valerie like to go along? She watched while Ben swung and shanked one off to the right like a Sunday duffer. "Look, I've shanked," cried Hogan, and his wife exclaimed, "Well, you've learned something new." That night they celebrated with a steak dinner...