Tour Ben Hogan's personal experimental prototypes from the 1960's – 2022 Charles Schwab Challenge

[atursky]

Thanks to the Ben Hogan Foundation, I was able to take photos of Ben Hogan's personal prototypes from around the 1960's on the range at Colonial Country Club on Tuesday ahead of the 2022 Charles Schwab Challenge. According to Robert Stennett from the foundation, Hogan didn't necessarily use these in competition, and they didn't make it into retail production, but these were clubs that Hogan had built and experimented with. They came directly from his personal collection and were donated to the foundation. He was truly ahead of his time, and he constantly chased perfection. 

 

Here's a brief explanation of each club: 

 

1) One of the first ever "hybrid" clubs

2) One of the first ever "metalwood" drivers

3) A modern driver shape with a "bore-thru" shaft

4) A super lightweight 5-iron made with an aluminum head and wave-like grooves on the face

5) A putter with the shaft in the toe

Edited May 25, 2022 by atursky

[elwhippy]

So glad none of them came to market. 

[jholz]

Obviously some dead ends on some of those experiments, but looks like some S2H2 tech in there. Everything old is new again!

[islesmb]

Cool pictures, thanks for sharing!

[Ivyguy]

Really amazing some of his work. 

[getair23]

I remember when Tom Stites was a contributor on here for a few minutes.  Writing about that hybrid and some of the work he did at Hogan.  Awesome pics thanks Tursky.

[QuigleyDU]

Cool stuff. Goes to show there are a lot of failed ideas in R&D. But it would be interesting to see what was taken from these and applied to other ideas. 

[Boise59]

Wow Ben Hogan invented the “Bassackward” putter!

 

Who’d a thought ?

[bcflyguy1]

9 minutes ago, ggpro said:

Wow Ben Hogan invented the “Bassackward” putter!

 

Who’d a thought ?

Looking at that thing made me oddly nervous, LOL

[the bishop]

That dude was on dope. 

[BIG STU]

Thank you for posting really educational

[onwrd2vctry]

Looks like CPG may have stolen cameltoe technology from Ben Hogan.  I knew he couldn't be trusted.

[pga43]

1 hour ago, ggpro said:

Wow Ben Hogan invented the “Bassackward” putter!

 

Who’d a thought ?

Since both Ben Hogan and Jim Flood (who brought the bassackwards putter to retail) we’ll never know who actually “invented” it

 

Greg

[Katke87]

Fascinating! Thanks

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

Really interesting. 

 

How heavy were the hybrid and metalwood? Noticeably heavier than persimmon woods?

[uramnich]

This is awesome thanks for posting!

 

That bore through driver head shape looks like many of the first titanium driver heads of the late 90s.

[DatSliceDoe]

wavy grooves? 

[Grim]

 

That to me just looks like an old school 90s Great Big Bertha profile. 

[MattyO1984]

Trying to imagine me making my own clubs...haha!! 

[Jack lives here]

7 hours ago, Grim said:

 

That to me just looks like an old school 90s Great Big Bertha profile. 

 

Bet it feels a whole lot better than a GBB.

Actually, it appeals to me.

[RightHandRough]

With his putting issues mentioned in the books on him I'm not surprised to see that odd duck of a putter. Try anything to get rid of the y*ps

[KennyP]

13 hours ago, DatSliceDoe said:

wavy grooves? 

 

Can't imagine what they thought the benefits of those would be.

[kblahey]

That one driver kind of reminded me of the Wilson Invex.

[EagleAteBirdie]

That 5i looks like it has a negative offset?

[nitram]

Thanks for sharing.🍻

[Ben Berube]

23 hours ago, elwhippy said:

So glad none of them came to market. 

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha, Im dying in the office LOL!!

[scooterhd2]

He brings those sticks to the skins game and still wins though. 

[flyingwedges2]

On 5/24/2022 at 12:49 PM, atursky said:

Thanks to the Ben Hogan Foundation, I was able to take photos of Ben Hogan's personal prototypes from around the 1960's on the range at Colonial Country Club on Tuesday ahead of the 2022 Charles Schwab Challenge. According to Robert Stennett from the foundation, Hogan didn't necessarily use these in competition, and they didn't make it into retail production, but these were clubs that Hogan had built and experimented with. They came directly from his personal collection and were donated to the foundation. He was truly ahead of his time, and he constantly chased perfection. 

 

Here's a brief explanation of each club: 

 

1) One of the first ever "hybrid" clubs

2) One of the first ever "metalwood" drivers

3) A modern driver shape with a "bore-thru" shaft

4) A super lightweight 5-iron made with an aluminum head and wave-like grooves on the face

5) A putter with the shaft in the toe

The iron looks great, no offset.  That type of putter works, I have two similar that I made, having never seen the one in the photos.

[getair23]

19 hours ago, Grim said:

 

That to me just looks like an old school 90s Great Big Bertha profile. 

I got a kick out of you calling the Big Bertha old school in this scenario. 

[DoughBack18]

And people think the Cobra RFs look scary at address... those irons are something else!