Hogan Remembered for Courage, Tenacity

In a service as subdued, formal and dignified as the man himself, Ben Hogan was eulogized Tuesday as one who battled overwhelming odds to become the finest shotmaker in the history of golf.

With golf legends Sam Snead, Byron Nelson and Tommy Bolt looking on, family, friends and admirers paid final respects to Hogan.

Quoting from Romans, Dr. Charles Sanders, associate minister of the University Christian Church, alluded to the poverty, hardships and pain that Hogan overcame in a career interrupted by a near-fatal car accident.

“Suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope,” Sanders said. “I think Ben Hogan’s life underlined the truth of that passage.”

Sanders recalled that Hogan “experienced the untimely death of his father and agonized over the realization that his golf swing must change dramatically in order for him to survive on the tour.”

Recounting the terrifying car-bus collision in 1949, Sanders said Hogan’s legs were “severely shattered and that he was told first that he might not live and then for sure that he would never walk again.”

But Hogan struggled back.

“Ben set his heart on a goal knowing what it would cost him to reach it,” Sanders said. “He was willing to pay the price.”

Stoic and small of stature, Hogan often was called Bantam Ben or the Hawk. In 1953, after he won the British Open at Carnoustie, the Scots dubbed him “The Wee Ice Mon.”

Hogan died Friday, a day after suffering a major stroke. But his mind and body had been ravaged in recent years by Alzheimer’s and cancer of the colon. He was 84.

Honorary pallbearers included Snead, Bolt and Ken Venturi, Fort Worth writer-author Dan Jenkins, The Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, Jim Murray, and the chief executive officer of PGA of America, Jim Awtrey.

Among the professional golfers on hand for the service were Ben Crenshaw, Doug Sanders, Rives McBee and Doug Higgins.

The services were held only minutes from Colonial Country Club, nicknamed “Hogan’s Alley” in honor of his five PGA victories there.

It was at Colonial, in 1959, that he won his final PGA title.

His 63 career victories rank third behind Snead’s 81 and the 70 of Jack Nicklaus.

Hogan won nine major championships, six after his car accident in 1949. He won his fourth and final U.S. Open title in 1953, the same year he also won the Masters and British Open.

Scores of Colonial club members were among the hundreds attending the service, traditional from beginning to end except for a poignant moment when Hogan’s wife of 62 years, Valerie, first appeared in the sanctuary.

The organist deviated from such religious classics as “Amazing Grace” and “Shall We Gather at the River” to play the old Irving Berlin standard, “Always.”