The goal of Ben Hogan’s 5 lessons is to create a reliable, repeatable swing, so all of your practice should be focused on repeatable mechanics.
Ben Hogan was a great golfer. He had a very reliable, repeatable swing. On my quest for scratch golf, I’ve decided to focus on Ben Hogan’s 5 lessons throughout all my practicing. I wanted to make a post about his 5 golf lessons to help me commit them to memory. I need to be able to focus on every aspect of his 5 lessons every time I swing the golf club. It’s not a ton of information, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to retain. Here are the five lessons Ben Hogan teaches:
- The Grip
- The Stance
- The Backswing
- The Downswing
- Summary
1- The Golf Grip
Ben Hogan played more of a draw and a hook typically. The grip helps us see why he was prone to that.
Lead Hand
Ben Hogan teaches to grip the club so that the grip goes across the palm of your lead hand. (Left hand for right handed golfers.) To get the right feel for this, just grip the club with your lead hand only in the crook of your index finger. The grip should go across the heel of your palm and the first pad of your index finger. This grip will help you keep the club shaft more in line with your lead forearm, leading to straighter and more repeatable shots. The “V” between your lead thumb and index finger should be pointing to your trailing eye.
Trailing Hand
The trailing hand will grab the club mostly with the middle finger and ring finger. The thumb and the index finger should not be doing any real gripping or controlling as this causes errant, inconsistent swings. Leave that thumb and index finger out of your grip.
2- The Golf Stance
The stance is another critical aspect of the swing. About 75% of your swing success is going to come from having a consistent grip and stance, all things that happen before you even begin swinging. So this is really critical. Your trailing food should be at a 90 degree angle to your target. Open up the lead foot in your stance about 22 degrees. An easier way to visualize this is to go 1/4 of the way to facing the target with your lead foot. Or half of half.
This will enable you to correctly open up your hips when you swing through the ball, which generates more power in your golf swing. With a 5-iron you want your feet about shoulder width apart and the ball slightly ahead of the middle of your stance. With longer clubs your trailing foot will move a little further away from your lead foot, and with shorter clubs your trailing foot will move a little closer to your lead foot.
You should always feel your weight more in your heels than the balls or toes of your feet. Again, this helps create a more repeatable swing as well as giving you a perfect arc of swing for power generation.
3- The Golf Backswing
Imagine a plane of glass the extends from the golf ball to your shoulders. As you swing the club back, you should start with your hands, then arms, then shoulders, all almost simultaneously. Your hips will follow your shoulders, but you should delay a bit in turning so as to create tension. This tension will become the greatest source of power in your golf swing.
As you follow this order, remember to keep your weight primarily on your heels, and keep the golf club under the imaginary plane of glass between the ball and your shoulders. This process will help you keep from slicing the golf ball.
As you swing back, your lead leg should break in a bit toward your rear leg. Your rear leg should act as a solid braced post, so you’re coiling it up like a spring, which will also play a big part in the generation of power in your downswing.
4- The Golf Downswing
This is the fun part. If you’ve spent time getting everything else set up properly, this is also a fairly easy part of the swing process.
The most important part of the downswing is starting with your hips. Imagine swinging through the ball with your butt pocket on your trailing side. This will give you the necessary hip rotation on your downswing. It will ensure you get good distance and accuracy on your shots.
During the downswing your weight should shift onto your front foot. If you’re falling onto your back foot on your follow through then you’re doing this wrong, and your shot dispersion will be proof. The follow through should land you in a strong stance on your lead foot.
Summary
Ben Hogan discussed practice a lot in this book. He teaches very simple principles and recommends practicing. If you spend 30 minutes a day working on your grip for a week, then 30 minutes a day working on your stance for a week, 30 minutes a day on backswing for a week, and 30 minutes a day on downswing. Do this, following the principles and guidelines taught in this book, and Ben Hogan promises your game will see huge improvement in just a months time.
