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Show SPORTLIGHT Hogan Leads the Pack in Golf By GRANTLAND RICE - IN THE midst of this weird, wild and woolly football upheaval, now reaching a magnificent anticlimax, anti-climax, the time seems to be ripe for a much quieter and much more sensible game known as golf. Golf is played by a great many more people than football has ever No one can control a nooK steadily. stead-ily. From that point on, Texas Ben became unbeatable. Now and then he would drop a tournament against a band of brilliant scorers. Someone Some-one would get unusually hot, or Ben would have a slight lapse in concentration or determination or timing. "No one can keep at the peak physically, mentally and emotionally emo-tionally all the time. They'll tell you fooball teams can't even do this three times a season. sea-son. But Hogan plays in 30 or more big tournaments. "Hogan has marvelous use of his hands," Ciuci continued. "His le.: hand remains firm and strong all the way through the swing. The left hand controls the club head. But in Ben's case his right hand has one of the finest finishes I've ever seen in gou. "Then watch Ben In putting. One of the biggest mistakes most putters put-ters make Is letting the body or knees move through the action of the putt. Not Hogan. Ben locks his body and knees before his hands start the putter blade In motion. "He turns over the physical action of the putt to his hands. He has already decided on the correct line and the speed of the green. These two details are all set. So, for a final move, all he has to concentrate on Is the smoothness of the swing, which Is rarely hurried. "More golfers should follow this method I mean deciding In advance ad-vance what the right line is the speed of the green and then giving their entire concentration to the smoothness of the putting stroke." known in any single sin-gle year. It is a much sounder game for the average aver-age citizen. It is also a game that doesn't lend itself to as much bickering bicker-ing and vituperative vitupera-tive conflict as football foot-ball does. Also it has a top man who stands Ben Hogan far above any top man in football. His name is Ben Hogan. the 137-pound Texan who today is by all odds the greatest golfer in the world. Why is Ben Hogan the world's best golfer? We discussed this m-tter with Ai Ciuci, veteran golf pro, star instructor and one of the ablest students of the game. "Let's take the fellow apart," Al said. "What makes a great j golfer first, a fine swing. Second, Sec-ond, a smart bead. Third, a stout heart on the competitive ! side. Fourth, ability to work i for the top. "Hogan has all these things. He has one of the finest swings in golf. He has one of the best heads golf has ever known, not even barring Walter Hagen, one of the smartest of them all. You can ask Gene Sara-zen Sara-zen and Bobby Jones what they think of his competitive ability or his willingness to outwork a horse." This statement is completely true. No one can say that from 1920 to 1930 Hogan could have beaten Jones, Hagen and Sarazen. Certainly Certain-ly no one can say that Jones, Hagen and Sarazen could have handled han-dled Ben Hogan from 1944 through 1948. In the matter of scoring, Hogan Is well ahead of any rival. But perhaps conditions have changed. The Last Move "Hogan," Al Ciuci continued, "made his last and smartest move this past season. Through 1947, Ben had been bothered here and there with a hook. Not too much, but enough to get him into trouble at times. A hook can nearly always get you into more trouble than a slice. It travels farther. "So this last season, Hogan decided de-cided to give away a few yards and play for a slight fade, rather than a hook. You can control a fade. |