mikeintopeka Yup, now that sounds like "pressure". Sorta like Trevino's story of playing in a Nassau with not a cent to his name.

    I'd have to already nominate this post-thread for best of the Year! (So far)

    Pro told me he started his career working at Ben’s club. Ben would sit at a table by the window and he was instructed to never bother Mr. Hogan. One day when he was closing up Ben got up to leave and he figured “ what the hell, I’m going to ask Mr. Hogan a question. So he asked Ben “ Mr. Hogan how did you concentrate the way you did when you played?”. Ben stormed out and he thought he was sure to be fired. About two minutes later Ben came back in and said” son just what the hell are you thinking about when you play”

    PA-PLAYA He, along with Byron Nelson, caddied @ Glen Garden golf club in Ft. Worth, TX back in their youth. Shortly after starting work there as a kid, the other caddie kids picked on Ben because of his small stature. Nelson, who was taller and more athletic, didn't have to worry about being picked on. One day, Hogan was cornered by one of the biggest bullies in the caddy yard and Hogan bloodied his nose after a tussle. They didn't pick on Ben after that.

    Here is an update on the Club you referenced. It is now going to be the setting for a new whiskey distillery and it is located not far from Downtown Ft. Worth and not too far east of The Colonial Country Club / TCU University. This article was written by the son of close family friends and Drew obviously has been out to see the renovations to the formerly shuttered course. I've called Drew several times when I'm going to be in the Metroplex and have teed it up with him several times. Looks like he has connections to get us onto this classic gem!

    http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/golf/article183174296.html

      Thanks for the link about Glen Garden....I thought it had closed years ago and just figured it was a housing
      development. Nice to see the course still gets some play!

      A couple of Hogan stories you've probably heard before. A young Johnny Miller approached Ben Hogan and introduced himself. Hogan looked up at Miller and said, "can't you see I'm eating my soup."

      Also, Hogan never called Arnold Palmer by his name. He always called him 'fella'.

      Always loved the one I read where one time he was playing in a Proam and an amateur approached him asking for a golf tip. Mr. Hogan picked up the guy’s club and sees the brand name, and then says to him, “why don’t you ask Mr. Dunlop”.

      fatshot

      Enjoyable read, read Vasquez's book a few years back.

      It's always been interesting to hear the perspectives of those who worked closely with him, particularly near the end of his career. As Hogan neared the end of his life, he became more open and forthcoming about his career... which isn't to suggest that he was as "approachable" as the modern-day greats (like Nicklaus, for instance).

      But then again, Hogan came from a different era, where social media and the media in general had yet to impact the nature of how his legacy would ultimately be perceived upon his passing.

      Hogan's mystique, in large part, was fueled by the fact that very few in the public (outside of his very limited inner circle) were made aware of his upbringing and subsequent struggles just starting out. Nevertheless, he remains one of the most intriguing legends to this very day for that very reason. What he overcame, be it with his upbringing regarding living through the Depression-era, then witnessing his father's suicide at 9 years of age, to then overcoming a horrific collision with a Greyhound Bus that occurred that February morning back in 1949 at 36 years of age during his golfing prime, to the point where he overcame a predominant hook in his golf swing, to the point where his career was all but officially over because of his yippsih putting stroke.... although we are only afforded bits and pieces of his legendary career - you get the feeling that there was so much more there to draw from... that there's still so much more to Hogan's life than what has been chronicled over the years.

      One of the more intriguing, more thorough reads I've ever read chronicling Hogan's life was by Curt Sampson, released back in '96 in his book "Hogan."

      Back in July of this year was the 20th anniversary of his passing, as he passed away back in '97. His wife, Valerie, passed away two years later in '99.