Ben Hogan's Legacy shines brightly in 2011.

The city of Fort Worth is beaming this December with the announcement that their municipal golf course complex is the site of their successful First Tee Program and the location for the Grand Opening of the Ben Hogan Learning Center.  Several press releases over the past few weeks point to a December 10 opening date and a funders dinner on December 8.  It should be quite a gala on both dates.  You can access more information about it from the Ben Hogan Foundation website at www.BenHoganFoundation.org.  

New Book!  We have been diligently working on some projects that will complement Mr. Hogan's Legacy.  The first is the publishing of the new instructional book The Complete Hogan (Wiley and Sons) in January 2012.  Author and renouned golf instructor Jim McLean presents a complete description of Mr. Hogan's excellent golf swing from the golden years of 1946-49 prior to the catastrophic accident.  Its a terrific accounting and visual demonstration of his swing from multiple views.  There is a view for the 'lefty' golfer as well.  I am excited that we are bringing this out for everyone to enjoy and learn from. Also included are numerous interesting stories that Jim has picked up over the years from taling to Mr. Hogan's friends and fellow competitors. 

Ben Hogan Swing Model Casting Call for 5 Lessons Project

Well we are finally at the beginning of the projection phase of the 'Five Lessons, The Modern Fundamentals of Golf' by Ben Hogan avatar project.  A schedule is now under development for the production activities and one of the first things we need to do is select a swing model for the motion capture shoot.  The location will be in California and should occur within about a month from now.  The shoot will take most of a day in the motion capture studio. 

We are looking for:

o Male: 5' 7" tall +/- 1" 150 lbs. +/- 10 lbs
o Age: 18 to 45 years old and very flexible
o Amateur or professional
o Able to demonstrate via video clip an 'exact' replica of Ben Hogan's golf swing circa 1947. Need two views, down the line and face on.
The golfer should contact me directly. If you want you can forward this contact information if you think someone would be interested.

My contact information is: mcctee@aol.com or by cell at 305-297-6276.

The data from the shoot will produce a 'wire frame' or 'bones model' showing the motion of the golf swing.  The data will later be supplemented with laid on CG artwork to perfectly resemble Ben Hogan circa 1940-1950.  This moving lifelike avatar will be the basis for the new Five Lessons DVD, interactive website, and Wii instructional golf application. 

Interview regarding the production story for The Ben Hogan Collection dvd set

This was just posted from an interview I had with David Wogan on www.SellBox.com. David is well known in the golf industry for his www.golfyellowpages.com directory.

The picture above is not David but a full size statue of Samuel Clemmons.  It looks like an interview so I thought it is appropriate.  The other fellow is me, just chatting and practicing my interview style.  The statue is located in a riverside park in Fort Worth Texas, just a stone's throw from Colonial Country Club, the site of this years Colonial Invitation PGA Tour event.  I do wish I was going to be there as in prior years.  It is a wonderful tournament, a great venue, and a tradition on tour that truly stands out. 

Here is the link. The history of the production process for 'The Ben Hogan Collection' is provided in the interview as well as some tips to others who want to produce media content.

http://www.sellbox.com/2010/04/tom-you-really-need-to-do-something-with-this/

New Ben Hogan golf swing on YouTube posted - Circa 1968

I was reading some discussions about the one plane and two plane swing recently and the discussion referenced Ben Hogan. Even though Hogan described the backswing plane and the downswing plane as slightly different in his book, 'Five Lessons, The Modern Fundamentals of Golf' the discussion was still looking for some clarification. It brought to mind this clip from my personal collection that shows the path of the club head and club shaft for Hogan's swing while he practice on the driving range. It is one of about 10 separate swing clips that show pretty much the same thing, some with irons and some with driver. Enjoy

Many advances on getting 'The Five Lessons, The Modern Fundamentals of Golf' by Ben Hogan to dvd. We are finalizing our promo reel that provides a great overview of our project and the applications we are devloping including the dvd and interactive website. We also are looking at some TV shows for 'The Making of the Ben Hogan Avatar'. We also put together financing packages for investors and sponsors as we move along. The 'Ben Hogan Avatar' is almost ready to hire a sports managment agent!

I promised some photos of the Ben Hogan Exhibit at the USGA's Golf House in New Jersey. These shots were taken during some of the filming of 'The Ben Hogan Collection' 3 dvd set. Its available on Amazon.com and select golf retailers. Ask for it.

This is a quick post and a couple of the photos are turned sideways. I will fix them later. Andy Mutch was the museum curator. The fellow in the white shirt and tan pants holding holding Ben Hogan's driver that he used in 1953 to win The Open at Carnoustie is me. That was a real treat, getting a feel of that historic golf club!

Ben Hogan Foundation Charity White Hot Gala

The charity gala was a huge success for the Ben Hogan Foundation and the Henry House charities. The Foundation is building a Ben Hogan Learning Center in Fort Worth, similar in concept to the Tiger Woods Learning Center in California. It will be located at the local municipal golf complex that already serves approximately 10,000 kids in their First Tee Program. The Foundation also supports the First Tee Program.

We were one of the Gold Sponsors for the event. They ran a slide show of the sponsors in photo #1. Next is one of the floral arrangements using original Ben Hogan golf clubs from the 60's as part of the display. Next is one of the ice sculptures that served as a table. David Feherty was there with his wit and stories about Tiger Woods and one of our severely injured service men who was a star at a recent Tour event when he met Tiger. The two paintings are on 6 foot canvases. They were painted on the spot as the artist spun them around on their mountings to creat likenesses of Tiger Woods and Ben Hogan. A shot of the crowd pouring over the silent auction items and finally the Proprietor of JanKris Winery from California who launched Ben Hogan Label wine selections, Merlot, Chardonet, and a Cabernet. All very good and well spoken of in wine circles. My choice was the Merlot!

Ben Hogan on the Ed Sullivan Show

I just found this terrific old clip that was posted on YouTube a few weeks ago. It is from the Ed Sullivan Show that originally broadcast in the 1950's and 60's. I actually watched this show when it was originally shown but was not a big golf fan at that time. I was just a kid then.

Hogan beats on Ed Sullivan a little by doing an impersonation of Sullivan's golf swing. It is very funny and shows a side of Hogan that was never really appreciated by the public or the golf writers of his time. This was a comedian Ben Hogan, a role he enjoyed with his close friends.

Also, and another really great part of this is a swing drill Hogan used and demonstrates here. It is similar to the one shown in the 'Five Lessons, The Modern Fundamentals of Golf' and is a good way to get rhythm and a sense of what a good golf swing should feel like before all the technical swing thoughts jump into it.

This is the URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr-b7OsZjF0

Hogan Swing from 'The Ben Hogan Collection' on YouTube

I have seen many of the swing clips we used in 'The Ben Hogan Collection' set appear in YouTube.com over the past couple of years. We produced the dvd in order for all golfers to enjoy Mr. Hogan's swing. Here is a link to one of the postings that actually did some justice to our original and copyrighted production.

This posting does not condone the illegality of the postings on YouTube of copyrighted material.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNgMNK3CtWU

Check it out. It is a really good sequence of swings by the legendary Mr. Hogan.

Tiger Woods and Ben Hogan

Tiger's winning percentage is just plain hard to believe. He is better than the rest of the field but does not win all of them. No one does, never did, and never will. The broadcast fellows on the Golf Channel, NBC Sports and CBS Sports and print journalists from Golf World, Golf Digest, Golf Magazine, Golfweek and others keep very good statistics on Tiger and the data is stunning. It really is history in the making and we are fortunate to be living in such a great chapter of the game.

I did a little math myself just to see what Ben Hogan's winning percentage was during his prime years between 1945 and 1949 before being derailed by the accident with the Greyhound Bus. Hogan's golf swing and golf instruction books help to describe how he dit it. The video clips in 'The Ben Hogan Collection' 3 dvd set and interactive software shows you what he did.

1945 - 5 wins in 18 starts = 27.8%

1946 - 13 wins in 32 starts = 40.6%

1947 - 7 wins in 25 starts = 28%

1948 - 11 wins in 25 starts = 44%

1949 - 2 wins in 4 starts = 50%

Total - 38 wins in 104 starts = 36.5%

During those years he had to bead Sam Snead, Jimmy Demaret, and other top notch players of the time. Pretty impressive stats. And we don't even have to address his fairways hit and greens in regulation stats. Tiger and others only wish they could come close on a regular basis in tournament play. Hogan not only 'owned his swing' he also 'owned' the flight of the ball and what the ball did after it landed.