Hoganesque practice routines

[southplains]

How might a player emulate Hogan's legendary practice regimen

to find "the secret in the dirt"?

 

Of course, his routines must have varied from season to season,

tournament to tournament, different weather, other commitments,

and so on. I am guessing a basic starting point would be at least

eight hours a day, ten shots per club, one hour sand play, one hour

pitching/chipping, one hour putting - day after day, week after week.

Then, too, there would be time spent indoors at night, swinging

in front of a mirror, putting and chipping on a carpet to a glass

and, of course, practice rounds with a caddy or in a cart.

The routine would also vary based on club tinkering and

experimentation.

 

Do you think any pros do that these days? Could any amateur

other than retired, very fit people do it?

[farmer]

I read somewhere that he would sometimes hit a full shag bag with every club. So, maybe 6-800 balls, then the short game work. For just-a-guy, that schedule would not be doable. A retiree, unless a very early retiree, does not have the body to stand up to that amount of work.

[southplains]

I read somewhere that he would sometimes hit a full shag bag with every club. So, maybe 6-800 balls, then the short game work. For just-a-guy, that schedule would not be doable. A retiree, unless a very early retiree, does not have the body to stand up to that amount of work.

I could certainly imagine him doing that in his early career, with long summer days and intense motivation to

make a living and become a winner. Later on, as a tour winner, he might have focused his practice routines

around certain courses and tournaments, while he built his FW business and had more of a social life.

After the accident, I can imagine him working to exhaustion to recover his game while healing, but

with less stamina for a few years and maybe ever since then. In retirement, he probably would

have cut back on the short game to just enjoy as much ball striking as possible - maybe more

social (but competitive) rounds with his buddies.

 

At the age of 68, with less than average fitness, I would be happy if I could do half of the "basic" routine,

while adding a daily fitness segment. If it paid off with low scores, as I think it would,

I might try to continually increase the practice. Maybe after two years of it, I could even

shoot my age on a 6000-6500 yard course. I could never approach Hogan's inner motivation

or mastery of technique, of course.

[powerfade66]

Venturi and I think also Jackie Burke Jr said he worked a lot on trajectory. If he had the height down pat he knew the rest would be more inclined to fall into place.

 

Claude Harmon said he went through phases where he'd work on hitting big slices. The theory being to tip his natural action over to more of a fade tendency than draw. This may be a little more dangerous for the average player perhaps without a hook tendency and he started with clubs set very open and extremely stiff ie. he doesn't need to depart very far from neutral to get a decent curve as compared to someone with standard specs.

[ricklinens]

Venturi and I think also Jackie Burke Jr said he worked a lot on trajectory. If he had the height down pat he knew the rest would be more inclined to fall into place.

 

Claude Harmon said he went through phases where he'd work on hitting big slices. The theory being to tip his natural action over to more of a fade tendency than draw. This may be a little more dangerous for the average player perhaps without a hook tendency and he started with clubs set very open and extremely stiff ie. he doesn't need to depart very far from neutral to get a decent curve as compared to someone with standard specs.

 

Heard the same thing over on the ABS site, saying Hogan would sometimes warm up hitting slices and through the bucket would work the slice ball closer and closer, pulling it back toward him, crossing a target line, and ending with a fade. Pretty clever. Also, from J. Herbert, Hogan bent bulge into the iron toe, accentuating the open set.

[powerfade66]

Interesting. I wonder if that was to make them visually more open to suit his eye or to balance out the draw tendency of toe strikes. I'm no club guru but isn't the bulge on woods to add a bit of a block to toey draws so they don't end up as far left?

[MelloYello]

Claude Harmon said he went through phases where he'd work on hitting big slices. The theory being to tip his natural action over to more of a fade tendency than draw. This may be a little more dangerous for the average player perhaps without a hook tendency and he started with clubs set very open and extremely stiff ie. he doesn't need to depart very far from neutral to get a decent curve as compared to someone with standard specs.

 

In his book about Hogan's swing, Jim McLean says that slice thing was something Hogan would do with a 3-iron in his pre-Augusta prep work.

 

McLean apparently knew a lot of Hogan's playing buddies and got info about Hogan directly from them. Apparently he and a friend would at times get to watch Hogan on the range when he (McLean) was a college player.

[powerfade66]

Claude Harmon said he went through phases where he'd work on hitting big slices. The theory being to tip his natural action over to more of a fade tendency than draw. This may be a little more dangerous for the average player perhaps without a hook tendency and he started with clubs set very open and extremely stiff ie. he doesn't need to depart very far from neutral to get a decent curve as compared to someone with standard specs.

 

In his book about Hogan's swing, Jim McLean says that slice thing was something Hogan would do with a 3-iron in his pre-Augusta prep work.

 

McLean apparently knew a lot of Hogan's playing buddies and got info about Hogan directly from them. Apparently he and a friend would at times get to watch Hogan on the range when he (McLean) was a college player.

 

Yes McLean talks about that in many books and VHS and DVDs and now downloads. All separate releases, not the one publication re-released in different formats.

 

I wonder why he worked on fades in preparation for a draw course. It’s been pretty much agreed over time that Trevino struggled there because he wasn’t a draw player and hit it too low.