Gamesmanship: Top 10 Moments

Mak Lok-lin reveals the times when professionals used more than just their golf game to try to overcome their opponents

5 Ben Hogan
As with Palmer, it’s hard to imagine Ben Hogan as anything other than the all-conquering steely-eyed legend he became. The “Wee Ice Mon”, as the locals in Carnoustie labelled him, was a man of infamously few words. But like Palmer, Hogan quickly let it be known he wasn’t to be messed with.
In one of his first tournaments he was paired with a veteran, a legendary player. When the rookie upstart ignored the great man and surged several shots ahead, the veteran began stepping on Hogan’s putting line. Ignoring the provocation on the first two occasions, it was a different scenario when the great man tried his luck for the third time. Grabbing him by the collar, Hogan uttered the immortal line, “See this putter? If you stand on my line again it’s going right between your eyes.” While not condoning Hogan’s actions in their entirety, a strong message to the offending party is most certainly the way to deal with this situation.

Pages

Click here to see the published article.