A Secret to Ben Hogan's golf club head acceleration

An image from 'The Complete Hogan' page 94.  At impact his right arm was still bent and does not fully straighten until the club head is about 2 feet past the original ball position.  The club head was continuing to accelerate THROUGH impact and past that point.  Jim McLean points out that initially Ken Venturi identified this action as 'the long right arm' on Hogan's downswing.  Hogan clearly addresses this action in his book, 'Five Lessons, The Modern Fundamentals of Golf'.  PGA Tour professionals including Tiger Woods strive to achieve this secret move on their downswing.  If they show some video clips of Hogan during this year's US Open at Merion CC on the Golf Channel you will get to see what this looks like on TV.

The Ben Hogan Setup Tip

One of Ben Hogan's setup positions was the cupping of the left wrist at address while keeping the right wrist flat.  This helped to prevent a hook.  The picture above is from 'The Complete Hogan' on page 63.  Jim McLean provides a good description in this section of the book regarding the other setup keys Hogan used in his pre-accident swing.  You can see the lean of the grip part of the club shaft away from the target as he begins the backswing in the series of photos in the book.  This action is part of the big muscle swing Mr. Hogan described in his Five Lessons book and in Power Golf.

Swing Tips from the Ben Hogan Collection

Moving forward in addition to news and information about the Ben Hogan Legacy and current events we will be bringing you a variety of swing tips and related images from our analysis of Ben Hogan's golf swing.  Since these are generally true fundamentals of a good swing we will be referencing Mr. Hogan's books such as 'Power Golf' and 'Five Lessons, The Modern Fundamentals of Golf' as well as 'The Complete Hogan'.  We will also try to include photo images and video images that support the swing tip and fundamentals discussed.

A great resource of videos for those interested in maintaining their own study materials is 'The Ben Hogan Collection' DVD set that we produced and released in 2006.  Along with Jim McLean we completed the new book 'The Complete Hogan' in 2012 that gives a good description of Mr. Hogan's swing from the period before the 1949 accident and after he found his 'secret' that led to his domination of the professional tour in the late 1940's and his crowning achievements in the 1950's.

This effort is for everyone that is working on improving their golf swing and who wants to play better golf.  So, here is a quote from Ben Hogan's Five Lessons:

'The correct hitting motion is one unbroken thrust from the beginning of the downswing to the end of the follow through.'

New Ben Hogan Accessories Available Now

New Ben Hogan Accessories

The new caps from the Ben Hogan Company (Perry Ellis) are finally out in the market.  Many of the styles are available at your local Walmart in the men's performance apparel section.  The styles are new and there are some new wrinkles in the modern fabrics used that are performance tech based.  If you can't get them at your local store contact me directly at mcctee@aol.com.

There are more accessories in the design stage.  I spoke with the marketing and design teams recently and the excitement level is quite high and the items are going to represent the Hogan legacy very nicely.  I will post photos as soon as I can release them.  

If you notice on two of the hats they used the iconic Merion photo as the model for the logo on the cap.  Very innovative of the design team.  

As you may have already noticed Mark Leishman on the PGA Tour has been sporting the apparel line.  The shirts are the Ben Hogan Performance Collection line.