Jim Turnesa earned $1,000 for his third place 280 stroke finish. Open golf championship, Ben Hogan got $2,000 and Demaret received $1,500 for second place. Open and the PGA Championship in the same year since Gene Sarazen did it in 1922.įor winning this U.S. Hogan became the first man to win both the U.S. Hogan had a two-stroke lead over Demaret as they started the final 18 holes. For the final rounds he shot 68 and 69, as did second place finisher Jimmy Demaret. He also broke the 54-hole score of that stood at 211.īantam Ben Hogan shot a 67 on the first round and 72 on the second. Open tournament record of 281 strokes for 72 holes, which had stood since it was registered by Ralph Guldahl in 1937 at Detroit. The Riviera's championship golf course was par 71 and 7,020 yards. He shot a 72-hole score of 276 on the par 284 course. On June 12, 1948, Ben Hogan won his first United States Open Championship, at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. In 1961, Ben Hogan sold his Ben Hogan Golf Club Co. Hogan felt that every step of club-making was an art.īen Hogan, the fabled Texas Hawk, spent a lot of time at his factory, participating in the production of the golf clubs that were to bear his name.
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The machines were very expensive, and personnel to operate them had to be carefully trained. The problem he faced in his factory was first getting machinery made that could produce the golf clubs the way he wanted them.
BEN HOGAN APEX IRONS BY YEAR PRO
Long before opening his factory, Hogan customized and adjusted his golf clubs in the pro shop of the Colonial Country Club. Only after extensive deliberation did he decide to ship them as second-line Hogan clubs. Abruptly shutting down the operation due to dissatisfaction with the product, Hogan was faced with a stockpile of about $150,000 in golf clubs that he considered to be rejects. By September of that year production had reached 600 sets of golf clubs per month. Manufacturing at the plant began in 1954. Prior to this, the Ben Hogan golf club manufacturing business enjoyed a two year backlog of orders, owing to Hogan's reputation as a perfectionist and his already having won four National Open championships. Interesting to note, Jack Fleck won in an upset over Hogan in that June 19 championship. This happened because in the National Open at San Francisco, the golfers who finished one and two were using Ben Hogan clubs. In the summer of 1955, the Ben Hogan golf club factory was flooded with orders. Stite’s group, Impact Engineering, did such a fine job on the final prototypes that we were able to laser scan them for creating the forging dies.Even though Callaway Golf bought out Ben Hogan as a premium creator of golf supplies the name still has power in the world of vast greens and sand traps.
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It was the first Hogan iron to be forged by Endo Manufacturing in Japan. The ’99 Apex is the epitome of a Hogan forged iron design. The second was my prototyping contractor Tom Stites, an ex-Hogan R&D staffer who would convert our CAD files to hittable specimens. The first was my CAD operator Charles Lovett who had a keen eye for blades after he had been hired away from Mizuno. I had two big assets available to me in the execution of the new Hogan Apex irons. Hogan’s design characteristics I ended up creating the infamous Hogan iron chart using a 1-megapixel digital camera and black fabric backdrop as I photographed every iron on my credenza “photo studio”. I was ready to pursue this project only after doing much homework, studying every Hogan design I could find and by interviewing past Hogan Company employees.
![ben hogan apex irons by year ben hogan apex irons by year](https://www.benhoganvintage.com/images/aq1-p.jpg)
This next club I designed must be an authentic Hogan in every aspect. My biggest challenge in designing the next generation of Hogan products: Do NOT design a Top-Flite club with “Hogan” stamped on it. The result is the feel and performance you would. Hogan’s company and had my dream job drop into my lap when Spalding purchased the Ben Hogan Company in 1997. the 1998 Apex Iron combines some of the best features of the 88 and 94 Apex models. Eleven years later, the last shipment of golf clubs with the Ben Hogan name were produced, a victim of business shortcomings more than club quality. This iron is one of my all time favorite designs.
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Material: Billet Forged 1030 Carbon Steel with Nickel/Chrome Plating