His doctors said he might never walk again, let alone play golf competitively. This accident left Hogan, age 36, with a double- fracture of the pelvis, a fractured collar bone, a left ankle fracture, a chipped rib, and near-fatal blood clots: he would suffer lifelong circulation problems and other physical limitations. He would have been killed had he not done so, because the steering column punctured the driver's seat of their new Cadillac sedan. Hogan threw himself across Valerie in order to protect her. On the morning of Wednesday, February 2, Hogan had reduced his speed in the limited visibility ground fog the bus was attempting to pass another vehicle on a narrow bridge, which left no place to avoid the crash. Hogan served in the U.S. Army Air Forces from March 1943 to June 1945 he was stationed locally at Fort Worth and became a utility pilot with the rank of lieutenant.ĭriving home to Fort Worth after a Monday playoff loss at the 1949 Phoenix Open, Hogan and his wife Valerie survived a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus east of Van Horn, Texas.
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He worked at Century as an assistant and then as the head pro until 1941, when he took the head pro job at Hershey Country Club in Hershey, Pennsylvania.ĭuring Hogan's prime years of 1938 through 1959, he won 63 professional golf tournaments despite the interruption of his career by World War II and a near-fatal car accident. Although it took a decade for Hogan to secure his first victory, his wife Valerie believed in him, and this helped see him through the tough years when he battled a hook that he later cured.ĭespite finishing 13th on the money list in 1938, Hogan took an assistant pro job at Century Country Club in Purchase, New York. He did not win his first tournament (as an individual) until March 1940, when he won three consecutive events in North Carolina at age 27. Hogan's early years as a pro were very difficult he went broke more than once. They married in April 1935 at her parents' home. Hogan met Valerie Fox in Sunday school in Fort Worth in the mid-1920s, and they reacquainted in 1932 when he landed a low-paying club pro job in Cleburne, where her family had moved. He turned pro in the golf industry six months shy of his 18th birthday at the Texas Open in San Antonio, in late January 1930. Hogan dropped out of Central High School during the final semester of his senior year. Club rules did not allow caddies age 16 and older, so after August 1928, Hogan took his game to three scrubby daily-fee courses: Katy Lake, Worth Hills, and Z-Boaz. The following spring, Nelson was granted the only junior membership offered by the members of Glen Garden. Instead of sudden death, they played another nine holes Nelson sank another substantial putt on the final green to win by a stroke. Nelson sank a 30-foot (9 m) putt to tie on the ninth and final hole. The two would tie for the lead at the annual Christmas caddie tournament in December 1927, when both were fifteen. One of his fellow caddies at Glen Garden was Byron Nelson, later a tour rival. A tip from a friend led him to caddying at age eleven at Glen Garden Country Club, a nine-hole course seven miles (11 km) to the south. Older brother Royal quit school at age 14 to deliver office supplies by bicycle, and nine-year-old Ben sold newspapers after school at the nearby train station. The family incurred financial difficulties after his father's suicide, and the children took jobs to help their seamstress mother make ends meet. By some accounts, Chester committed suicide in front of him, which some (including Hogan biographer James Dodson) have cited as the cause of his introverted personality in later years. When Hogan was nine years old in 1922, his father Chester committed suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot at the family home. His father was a blacksmith and the family lived ten miles (16 km) southwest in Dublin until 1921, when they moved seventy miles (110 km) northeast to Fort Worth. Hogan was born in Stephenville, Texas, the third and youngest child of Chester and Clara (Williams) Hogan. Best results in major championships (wins: 9)Īssociated Press Male Athlete of the Year
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