That was a safe response, because Gene had told me Mr. “It does look a bit hooked,” I stammered. Without knowing when, I must have crossed over a trust line and paid the final installment of my dues. Hogan asked me how much hook I saw in a wood Gene was showing him. Hogan shocked me by asking me a question. Only recently during one of our jaunts up to his office had Mr. I also had to consider the fact that sometimes the messenger with bad news is killed, or in my case, let go! If I did, however, it might appear to embarrass Gene and Mr. I considered pushing the math matter higher up the company food chain. “Case closed,” Gene said, and he would never bring it up with Mr. Hogan and their bulky fixture were right and the trigonometry and engineering worlds were wrong. Early in this club degree dilemma I tried to have a discussion with Gene about it, but he didn’t see a problem. Yes, the same sine as you might have learned in high school trigonometry. I will give you more detail in a story of how I know this a little later.īen Hogan Had His Own Personal Math for Club Specs! Earlier in my engineering training, I had learned engineering standard measurement technique for machined parts that required a sine plate and a Bridgeport-type mill. Hogan was a patriot and would require all clubs and components under his name to be 100 percent made in the USA. Hogan degrees were about 1-to-2 degrees different!Īs the head of the product development team in Fort Worth, I needed to communicate the actual and accurate degrees and dimensions of irons and wedges to vendors in California and Chicago, so I was in a box. That’s right, when Hogan thopught his machine was 56 degrees it was not really 56 degrees. Hogan’s loft and lie fixture was very consistent and the products of this machine fit his eye and expectations, it did not read in true engineering degrees. It was massive - about the size and weight of a modern washing machine. The one problem with the ingenious loft and lie machine was that the fixture did not travel.
Hogan’s things and is a wonderful tribute.īack to 1988 in Fort Worth. I would implore anyone who loves Hogan lore (or his real clubs) to make a trip there some day.
I have since donated it to the Ben Hogan Museum in Dublin, Texas, where it is on display. Years later, Gene gave me this historic fixture. It became the only standard for Hogan touring pros, the factory and all things Ben Hogan. Hogan’s clubs - both his personal clubs, and his company’s clubs. After they built that one fixture and it was used to set and gauge all of Mr. It was very creative thinking for its time. Hogan and Gene had come up with this ingenious fixture. He must have come to realize these specifications were synergistic while “digging his game out of the dirt,” and Mr. Hogan knew instinctively that the loft and lie of an iron combined to determine the launch vector. With no engineering or formal physics schooling, Mr. The Ben Hogan Company loft and lie machine, which is on display at the Ben Hogan Museum in Dublin, Texas. Ben Hogan, however, that the man would have his own personal set of numbers and math. I never thought when I went to work for Mr. I hear that great people do things that are different. Find out what incredible, unknown talent Hogan had (outside of playing golf) that Tom will never forget. The life lessons Tom Stites learned while working with the famous and complex Hogan, make this a great read. And Hogan had no education in engineering or formal physics! The details about the unusual loft and lie machine that Hogan and some engineers built is fascinating. We are here to learn from one another! This is a terrific story by Tom Stites, who worked for Ben Hogan in the engineering of golf clubs. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the website. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. Ben Hogan Had His Own Personal Math for Club Specs!
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