Does Anyone Know What Ben Hogan’s “Secret” Was?

[EverythingGolf]

There has been some debate about the swing arc and that been hogan knew the secret to keeping the club square to this swing arc etc. I am hoping I can get peoples ideas and fact about hogan's swing.

[saevel25]

I would say Hogan's secrets are more Hogan's secrets on how not to hook the ball.

[Mr. Desmond]

Read The Final Missing Piece of Ben Hogan's Secret Puzzle by VJ Trolio.

Some of the puzzle might seem similar to S&T; elements.

[mcctee]

Videos and extensive explanations can be found in 'The Ben Hogan Collection' 3 dvd set.  We put in a lot of film of Mr. Hogan to give the viewer an extensive number of examples of his swing from a variety of angles.  That is the real deal.  That is a good starting point.

[LongballGer]

He revealed his secret in a lifetime article. It´s the cupping of the left wrist at the top of the backswing which enabled him to hit his famous "Hogan Fade".

[MiniBlueDragon]

The problem is that there seem to be a lot of "secrets" people refer to with Hogan:

- Pronation/Supination of the wrist.

- Clockwise rotation of the right leg on the backswing to create torque (backed-up with the fact that he had an extra spike added to his right shoe)

- Slight rotation of the head to face the right foot before the takeaway.

- A mental secret.

I think ultimately however there may be no single "secret" and he was just a phenomenal golfer.

[LongballGer]

I agree. Ben Hogan wasn´t super human although I do believe he was a genius. Creating the swing he did without the use of a video camera and only relying on feel is very impressive to say the least. Unfortunately, after he died some people tried to milk the cash cow by selling fake Hogan secrets.

The problem is that there seem to be a lot of "secrets" people refer to with Hogan:

- Pronation/Supination of the wrist.

- Clockwise rotation of the right leg on the backswing to create torque (backed-up with the fact that he had an extra spike added to his right shoe)

- Slight rotation of the head to face the right foot before the takeaway.

- A mental secret.

I think ultimately however there may be no single "secret" and he was just a phenomenal golfer.

[Harmonious]

Great topic.  And, by the earlier posts, there are many opinions and ideas on Hogan's one secret, if in fact there was only one.

As to what he did that others did not:  My opinion is that he got the clubhead back to square so early in his downswing, that he never had to worry about timing his release.  That early counterclockwise rotation in his left arm allowed him to really attack the ball, and not worry about his dreaded hook.  For a guy his size (5'9", 130 pounds, I think) he hit it tremendous distances.

Here's a video from Tom Bertrand, who has done a lot of Hogan stuff.  He talks about that rotation of his left arm to square the clubface, with no manipulation of the hands.  I think it's pretty interesting.

[allin]

Someone, I can't  remember who, felt Hogan was interested in keeping the idea of a big secret alive in hopes of scoring a big payday for a book or magazine series, and that there was no real secret. I believe the statement was in an old golf magazine article about Hogan or the possible secret.

[gmbtempe]

The guy who has Hogan's Secret figured out always seems to be the person publishing the next book.

[bwdial]

Honestly, I think Hogan's greatest secret was simply work.  He worked hard on his golf swing to hit the shots he wanted to hit.

[iacas]

I think that Hogan's secret was that people believed he had a secret.

[Zeph]

Any "secret" or similar "key move" is nothing but a gimmick made to sell more books or DVDs. Write one book on the swing, then write another one on your secret. Profit.

Hogan may have felt a cupped wrist was the secret to his swing, but since when was a single static position the secret to anything in a dynamic swing? A slightly cupped left wrist is something most golfers got, with varying degrees. I've seen some of these secrets and key moves, the common factor being that none of them will revolutionize golf for the whole world. Some players might need to work on that exact issue, for others it may be the opposite.

[ohiolefty]

Hogan's secret was that if you are a natural hooker of the ball like him, set your clubs and grip insanely open and work like hell with your legs and you'll hit a soft, beautiful little cut.

The Jody Vasquez book is the closest to really getting at Hogan's secret. If he had one. Ugh.

[JackLee]

Originally Posted by LongballGer

He revealed his secret in a lifetime article. It´s the cupping of the left wrist at the top of the backswing which enabled him to hit his famous "Hogan Fade".

And stop hooking.  Probably not a good secret for slicers, or if you can already hit a nice fade without cupping the lead wrist at the top.

[The Recreational Golfer]

This, from Cary Middlecoff's The Golf Swing regarding Hogan's secret:

"The statement [that he had discovered 'the secret'] was especially startling in one respect, as it put Hogan so squarely on the spot. He clearly must have known that he would consistently have to produce some outstanding golf or suffer considerable embarrassment. He surely knew that all serious golfers are prone to come up with what they think 'the secret' but which usually turns out to be a snare and a delusion. I know that I have had many of them, some of which I briefly thought were so valuable that I would keep them strictly to myself until I had won all the tournaments and money I wanted. But none ever impressed me sufficiently or worked for a long enough trial period to tempt me to announce that 'now I've got it.' Hogan's did."

[The Recreational Golfer]

Here's another one from the Middlecoff book:

"Hogan...hit upon the method approximately between the seasons of 1947 and 1948. ... I played with Hogan many times that year, [1948] and while he won the U.S. Open and several other tournaments, he did not seem to me to be hitting the ball with anything like the authority that characterized his play in later years. ...  According to my memory, it was in 1950, after the accident, that he began showing the kind of precision golf that set him apart."

and finally this:

"My guess is that Hogan's theory and practice of hitting a golf ball will be around for a long time. He played so superlatively that nobody who ever watched him in his best years can forget the experience. There is also the fact that what he wrote about the golf swing has been proven to be right in virtually every aspect, even if not always easy to comprehend by the average golfer."

[MiniBlueDragon]

And another player in the "I know Hogan's secret" is the new downloadable from SiTD - "Most Powerful Move in Golf"

Now if only I can wrap my head around applying such a strange concept to my swing next time I'm practicing...