Ben Hogan's 1-Iron at Merion

[Roosto]

In Ben's book, Five Lessons, he tells about his two iron shot at Merion.  Was he talking about a different shot than the famous one iron shot?  Anybody here read Five Lessons?

[boogielicious]

In Ben's book, Five Lessons, he tells about his two iron shot at Merion.  Was he talking about a different shot than the famous one iron shot?  Anybody here read Five Lessons?

There is a whole thread on it. Enjoy!

[Roosto]

Just found the answer on the internet-

One-iron approach to the 18th hole, fourth round
The one-iron that Hogan hit to the 18th green in the final round (the shot made even more famous by Hy Peskin’s photograph) is displayed in the USGA museum. But in his book Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf , Hogan and collaborator Herbert Warren Wind wrote that he hit a two-iron. Hogan told a group of reporters in 1969 that he used a two-iron, and Dan Jenkins, the writer closest to Hogan, says that Hogan told him it was a two-iron. But accounts closest to the event say it was a one-iron, and they carry more weight. Fred Byrod in the Philadelphia Inquirer and Lincoln Werden in the New York Times both wrote in their reports that it was a one-iron. Hogan told golf writer Charles Price two weeks after the Open that he hit a one-iron, and further explained to Price that he considered hitting a four-wood before deciding on the one-iron. Later in life, Hogan said that the two-iron reference in his book was a mistake and that it was a one-iron.

Theft of one-iron and golf shoes
Hogan later said that his one-iron and golf shoes were stolen from the premises at Merion after the fourth round. But there is good reason to believe that the theft happened after the next day’s 18-hole playoff instead. There is solid evidence that he hit a one-iron in the playoff; indeed, Hogan is quoted in the next day’s Inquirer saying that he misjudged the wind on the eighth tee and “used a No. 1 iron when I should have hit a brassie [three-wood].” The newspaper account also said Hogan hit a “driving iron” (a term used for a one-iron) off the tee on the 11th. It is very unlikely that Hogan had a backup one-iron, and also unlikely that he misspoke after the playoff round about using a one-iron.

Hogan said that his golf shoes were stolen from his locker. But a theft of both the shoes and one-iron at the same time and from the same place seems more likely, and so does a theft from a public place instead of the Merion locker room. There is a plausible scenario for this to have taken place after the playoff. Whereas after the fourth round, Hogan’s golf bag would have been whisked away to the club’s storage room, in the fourth round it would have remained on a rack near the clubhouse until after the awards ceremony. Also, it’s quite possible that after changing into a jacket and street shoes for the ceremony Hogan would have brought his golf shoes down and put them in his golf bag—no reason to leave them in the locker then. A final point: After the fourth round, the thief wouldn’t have known what club Hogan hit on the 18th hole. But the next day’s paper reported that he hit a one-iron, so an unscrupulous person looking to steal a historic club would have known which one to take.

I trust Hogan on his identification of the missing one-iron when it was sent to him in 1983. A club collector in North Carolina named Bob Farino purchased the one-iron and suspected from the tiny impact area on the clubface that it was Hogan’s. He gave it to the Hogan Company for Hogan to look at, and Hogan in turn gave it to the USGA Museum after confirming it was his.