"Ben Hogan's Magical Device" by Ted Hunt

Thank you for posting this iacas!  I want to first introduce myself.  I just started playing golf in March.  I was a baseball player and blew out my shoulder and at 28 I needed something to be competitive about.  My friends have played for 15 years and one is a 6 handicap, which stinks for me because as you know friends are very competitive.

 

Long story short I went from not being able to hit a golf ball in March to having my best score from the blues of 92.  Btw I want to point out that playing with my friends that means no mulligans and if you accidently hit the ball you have to count it, so I think a 92 is pretty good.

 

Anyway, I never could figure out what the term wrist release meant so I bought Hogan's 5 lessons and while it helped there were things I could not figure out that he was saying.  One of them is when he talks about supinating the wrist to create the "bulge" going toward the target.  Never could figure it out. 

 

I bought the book "Ben Hogan's Magical Device" in August and that is when I started getting better.  He explains alot of what Hogan was talking about.  For instance supination was a miss spoken explination for what Hogan meant as Palmer Flexion, which if you see it helps you feel your wrist Palmer Flex.

 

I recommend this book to anyone who has Hogan's five lessons.  They really should be used together.

It's a supplement to 5 Lessons, but it doesn't add a whole lot aside from explaining a few things better. Half the book is really a biography of Hogan, with half being swing related. The bio parts were cool, the swing advice was interesting but not up to the level of 5 Lessons. 

 

Personally, I think people analyze Hogan's swing way too much and don't do a good job. There's a difference between how he swung and how he told people to swing, so people try to claim he had some crazy secret. The secret was, he was tough as nails mentally and he practiced like there was no tomorrow. Also, any claim that he had a secret referred to his ability to consistently not snap hook despite having a swing which has a lot of potential for that miss. He gives a great overview of the swing, most of his metaphors are good, and his grip and stance advice are standard. 

 

I have to point out to everyone who will listen, however, that 5 lessons alone isn't enough to learn to swing optimally. There are a lot of flaws with that book, some of the advice is outdated, and much is poorly phrased, and people reinterpreting it usually doesn't help. This book mainly explains a few things better, and has the biographical info. In all, there are a million different ways to phrase the same piece of advice, and Hogan's images were not always the best for everyone. (An example is that, in 5 lessons, lag is not mentioned at all, but Hogan strongly advises using it by different names and by setting you up to produce it.)

Exactly!  Very well put.  This book is definately a supplement to 5 Lessons.  This book actually makes 5 Lessons a better book because it helps to explain what Hogan was really trying to say.  That's why for anyone who has read Hogans 5 Lessons I would definately recommend this book because in some ways it will open your eyes to some of Hogan's advice.

The next book of Ted Hunt's is "Ben Hogan's Short Game Simplified". It expands Hogan's short game with more photos (most not of Hogan), some drills and a lot less biography then "Magical Device". Another worthwhile addition to 5 Lessons and the under appreciated "Power Golf".

 

When it does come down to books I'll take "The Eight-Step Swing" by Jim McLean. While not a "Hogan book" the influence is there and it's not written to make the reader a Hogan Clone. (I excommunicated myself from the First Church of Hogan for heresy, but still attend.)

 

However, I prefer watching repetitive slow motion video on the DVD "The Ben Hogan Collection" (again Jim McLean) over any of the books, including Hogan's.  (Most of this DVD reminds me of a cake named "Death by Chocolate." A few bites are wonderful and too much is too much.)

 

 

Edited by The Tin Man - 12/12/11 at 5:11pm

PS: The "Magical Device" is Hogans connection between shoulders and arms.  The "secret"  is the way he moved his left hand. 

Bingo!  It's in the Palmar flexion.  Very well put!

Has anyone used this particular method for putting? I remember a couple years ago I tried it and was making lots of short putts but leaving long ones short. I'm in a putting slump right now, and was going to try it again for short putts and use a diff method for my lag putts.