If you want to learn how to improve your golf swing, then studying his golf swing will do you no wrong. I personally have a lot of admiration for what he went through as a child seeing his father take his own life, to being just an average at best golfer, to the greatest of his time.

As you can imagine, there have been many books written about him, and I’ve read many of them. Ben Hogan, An American Life written by James Dodson was an excellent book, as well as Hogan by Curt Sampson.

This article is more of an introductory article about Ben Hogan, as I will have many articles breaking down his golf swing and what you can take from it to help your swing.

If you’re looking for some great golf swing pictures of Ben Hogan, then you’ll want to get your hands on The Hogan Mystique. It is a big book with pictures never seen of Hogan in action. It is quite expensive, but an awesome “coffee table” book to refer to when you want swing tips from one of the best.

Ben himself wrote two golf instruction books, one of which many golfers consider the bible of the golf swing. His first book called Power Golf (written in 1948) was a good book in and of itself, but his later book Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf (written in 1957) is the one that is still today read by the majority of golf instructors, players and coaches all around the world, even though it was written 5 decades ago!

Tournament Record

In the years between 1938 and 1959 Hogan won 63 tournaments, which shows you how accomplished he was as a professional golfer. He won 9 major championships, and after a near fatal car accident in 1949; he was told he may never walk again, let alone play golf; he won several more tournaments and even what they call the “Hogan Slam” which was the first three majors of the season, only missing the chance to win the other major, The PGA Championship because he was playing in the British Open at the very same time.

Ben Hogan’s Secret

There was a lot of speculation that Ben had found the secret to a repeatable, consistent golf swing, and he nearly proved it with his pure ball-striking. After many frustrating years fighting a wicked, nearly brutal snap hook, hogan having pounded over a million balls (supposedly) had found the secret.

But…did he really tell anyone the secret? Many instructors and fellow players said they knew Ben’s secret, but to this day, no one knows if the secret was ever revealed.

The first theory is that the “secret” was a special wrist movementaction known as “cupping”. This information was disclosed in a 1955 Life magazine article. But… many believed Hogan did not reveal all that he knew at the time. It has since been alleged in Golf Digest magazine, and by Jody Vasquez in his book “Afternoons With Mr Hogan”, that the second element of Hogan’s “secret” was the way in which he used his right knee to initiate the swing and that this right knee movement was critical to the correct operation of the wrist.

There have now been golf instructors who have leached off his name and created instruction books and DVDs saying they have the secret of Ben Hogan’s and they will show you. Be aware is all I have to say.

In future articles, we’ll break down Ben Hogan’s Golf Swing and show you how you can become a better ball striker.

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You may have noticed a decline, and it is affecting your performance. If so, this is only the beginning unless you add stretching to your daily routine.  Also, if you play golf in pain, a golf stretching program will quickly eliminate aches and pain, allowing you to enjoy your golf for years to come.

A good example is making a full shoulder turn in your golf swing. It’s not about pounding more balls, or taking more lessons. All it takes is a simple golf stretch for a bigger backswing.

Golf Swing Muscles

If you don’t want to do a full blow golf stretching routine, then you’ve got to at least target a couple of critical areas (golf swing muscles) if you want to stop the rapid declining of your golf swing.

Core Muscles

The core is the engine to your golf swing. If it is weak or tight, you cannot (and will not) produce maximum clubhead speed. The result is being the shortest hitter in your foursome. The core golf muscles used in your golf swing account for 80% or more of your power. The core has one key function in your golf swing…ROTATION!.

The common scenario for the older golfer is a severe restriction in core rotation both back and through. This will greatly diminish clubhead speed, power and ultimately distance. Not being able to make a full shoulder turn on your backswing can also cause an over the top golf swing.

Do you want to quickly improve your golf swing power, and play pain-free golf?

Simple golf stretches for every aspect of your golf swing. Do you tighten up during the round? We’ve got simple stretches to get you loose and ready to shoot par. Do you have back pain? No problem! We’ve got lower back stretches to eliminate back pain. Do you want a golf specific warm up to avoid early round blow up holes. We got it right here!

If you want the most golf-specific stretches you can do before, during and after your round to not only help your golf swing consistency, but to prevent an “after round” back pain you may usually incur. We’ve even got stretches you can do right in your office…without leaving your chair!

Click on the image to the right to learn more.

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Some of the issues causing an inconsistent clubface at impact is:

• Rolling the face open at the start of the takeaway.
• Improper golf grip that encourages an open/or shut face.
• Cupping of the wrists at the top, which either opens or shuts the face.
• Early release of the wrists (flipping, scooping) through impact.
• Upper body rotation stops in downswing, and hands take over and close the clubface.

Here’s how you can make sure you will have a square clubface at impact:

Clubface At Address

This was a huge eye opener to me after 15 years of playing golf and studying the golf swing. Setting your golf club square to the target at address like the above picture. All this time I had it slightly open and didn’t even know it. This is so important. Try to copy the picture next time you go out to practice or play. This is a perfectly square clubface. You are starting off with the best chance of returning square with this position.

Square At Top Of Golf Swing

Having a “checkpoint” at the top of your golf swing is not a bad idea when you’re doing mirror work at home, or you can have a buddy check it when you swing. The key to being square at the top is not having too much cup in your wrists. You can also have a bow in your left wrist which will dramatically shut the face as well.

Take a look at Tiger Woods. This is a perfectly square clubface at the top of his golf swing. Look at his left wrist. It’s not cupped or bowed. You can barely see his clubface, but see how it matches up with his left forearm. That’s a perfect example of square at the top.

Square At Impact

This is the “key to the kingdom”. Getting to impact with a perfectly square clubface. If you can get to impact with your hands ahead, hitting down on golf ball, a forward lean of the club shaft, and your square clubface, you’re golden! Take a look below at an overhead view of what it should look like. My face is square to the target. You can see the hands are ahead of the ball, making sure to hit the ball first with a descending blow.

Great Resource On Attaining A Consistently Square Clubface

If you are a student of the golf swing, I strongly recommend you get the Clubface Golf Ebook. It is by far, the most comprehensive ebook with over 50 videos on just the clubface in your golf swing. It’s impressive to say the least! Click here to learn more.

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Here’s a picture of Tiger Woods. It’s not the clearest picture, but I want you to notice a few things, and apply these golf tips to your iron golf swing next time you go out and hit balls. Do not try this on the course without doing it in practice first.

Tip #1 Your hands and butt of the club MUST be ahead of the golf ball at impact.

Tip#2 Forward shaft lean. This is where most beginner golfers mess it up. The get no shaft lean at impact, meaning they are throwing (flipping) the clubhead at the ball in a scooping fashion. This is death to the golf swing.

Tip #3 Move ball back in stance slightly with mid to short irons. Don’t be drastic with this, but many beginner golfers have the ball too far forward making it nearly impossible to keep your hands and butt of club ahead of the ball with an improper ball position.

Tip #4 Preset Impact Position. Before you hit every shot on the range with your wedges I want you to get into your impact position. Hands ahead of ball, hips rotated towards target. Get into this position, set it, then take your backswing and hit ball. I took a an overhead shot of what this preset impact should look like. I think it will be an eye-opener for you.

It may look like the ball is way back in my stance, but that is an illusion. In the proper impact position, you’ve rotated your hips, and put 90% of your weight on your left side, so a lot of motion and momentum is now ahead of the ball…ACCEPT…my head, upper body, and my spine tilt is still away from the target.

Also, look at the lines I’ve drawn. The thin white line is a square clubface at impact. Most beginner golfers have it wide open and that’s why they slice the golf ball. The solid white line is showing proper angle of the shaft from looking above. Notice the angle. The yellow line is where most amateur golfers are at impact. Straight which results in a flipping of the club at impact, adding loft, possibly causing a thin or bladed shot, and definitely a loss of distance.

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I had an eye-opening experience with a golf instructor recently, who looked at my grip (it was wrong) and my clubface at address. He said it was WIDE OPEN! I was in disbelief, but I trusted this instructor unequivocally. He squared the face, corrected my golf grip fundamentals and when I looked down at the club on the ground behind the ball I about fell over!

It looked completely, 100% shut!

Then, when he put me in an impact position, I about fell over a second time. Wow! I had never seen nor felt this position in my life! I think this is where many golfers mess up. They, like me, don’t really know what a correct and square clubface should look like at address, and at impact.

Take a look at the below picture, and ask yourself if your club at address looks like this?

If it does, than you are a solid ball-striker. If it doesn’t, you’re about to experience nirvana like I did!

I am now compressing the crap out of the ball with a piercing lower trajectory that I can control, and I’m getting backspin on the greens!

I’ve added about 5 yards to every iron, and I hit my irons pretty far already, so this was an added bonus. Now I don’t have to worry about the thought… “why is it so hard to square golf clubface at impact?”

Best Resource For Clubface

I’ve come across a phenomenal golf ebook that covers every aspect of clubface awareness in the golf swing. It really is amazing, as I have never seen a book just covering the clubface like this one.

This ebook has 50 DVD quality video clips which is unheard of for an ebook.

You can check it out over at Clubface Golf right now!

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