What golfer in history has ever hit bottom and turned it around? Maybe it's happened but I don't know. I don't follow golf. Has their been a comeback kid before? In the NFL, something many can relate here, I can make a case for Joe Montana almost taking Kansas City to the promise land, or how about Kurt Warner with the Arizona Cardinals?, sure he didn't win but he made it to the Super Bowl and almost did it...again. Baseball has many many comeback kids. Tennis has a few. Boxing; Sugar Ray Leonard, need I say more?
Golf. If anyone in the sport of golf people are hoping for that "comeback" it's Tiger. I fall in that category because I don't believe it's been done on epic proportions like other sports.
Correct me if I'm wrong. I'd appreciate it because I never really knew of that comeback kid in golf and my knowledge is limited. Tiger in my mind would be the one that would fit the bill of the one where everyone pulls for to win that big trophy again. so many trophies in golf and when i say that i mean the "big" one.
Golf. If anyone in the sport of golf people are hoping for that "comeback" it's Tiger. I fall in that category because I don't believe it's been done on epic proportions like other sports.
Correct me if I'm wrong. I'd appreciate it because I never really knew of that comeback kid in golf and my knowledge is limited. Tiger in my mind would be the one that would fit the bill of the one where everyone pulls for to win that big trophy again. so many trophies in golf and when i say that i mean the "big" one.
On a damp and chilly morning...Wednesday, February 2, 1949, Ben Hogan got up before the sun and hit the El Capitan Motel coffee shop in Van Horn, Texas. He and his wife, Valerie, had driven more than 500 miles east from Phoenix the day before, and while the road made his wife queasy, he craved a quick breakfast, and they still had to go 500 miles east to Forth Worth. Ben ate, went back to their room and packed the Cadillac with their luggage and his golf clubs.
Ben Hogan had reached the pinnacle of his career. For the first time, the diminutive golfer had captured two major tournaments in the same year—the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship. Two weeks earlier, his face had appeared on the cover of Time magazine.,
Ben and Valerie Hogan pulled out of the parking lot at the El Capitan in sunshine, heading east along two-lane Highway 80. Within less than ten miles they ran into a dense fog and a slick, icy film on the road. Hogan cut his speed to 25 miles per hour; then he saw “four lights winking at me.” When Ben recognized what it was coming directly at him he looked to veer off the road, his only possible means of escape but he saw a culvert on his right.
With no way out Ben and Valerie Hogan got plowed into Headfirst by a Greyhound Bus.
Word then quickly spread that Ben Hogan had been killed. Some of his fellow golfers, playing in a pro-am tournament in Arizona, walked off the course mid-round upon hearing the news.
Ben wasn't actually dead though. He was alive but strapped to a hospital bed, largely covered in gauze.
Doctors had diagnosed Hogan with a fractured left collarbone, a double fraction of his pelvis, a broken ankle and a chipped rib. Blood clots then formed in his legs after two weeks in bed, and by the end of February, doctors discovered that one clot had traveled to his lung. They gave him several blood transfusions, then performed abdominal surgery to tie off the inferior vena cava—the large vein that carries blood from the lower half of the body to the heart. Hogan would spend another pain-filled month in the hospital, unable to leave his bed.
A wiry 137 pounds at the time of the accident, he dropped nearly 20 pounds during his stay. A return to pro golf, which was figured to be just a matter of time due to Ben's fighting Spirit, was now seen now as nowhere near as "certain" as it once seemed.
June of 1950, 16 months after the accident, found Ben in defiance of the odds not only returned to the course but leading The US Open nearing the end which was an incredible story to say the least but the intense summer heat wilted Ben and he lost the lead.
Hogan needed to hit an impossibly long shot from the fairway to make par on 18th and final hole. A packed gallery formed a silent gauntlet around him as he practically staggered to his ball, according to eyewitnesses. Judging the yardage, Hogan reached for his one iron—the most difficult club in his bag to hit. The old joke goes that if you’re ever in a lightning storm, the safest thing to do is to hold up your one iron, for even God can’t hit a one iron.
Hogan steadied himself over the ball, slowly began his backswing, unleashed his power and sent the ball flying. The crowd around him gasped at the sound of his shot and the sight of the ball heading toward the flag. Hogan went on to par the hole and force a three-way playoff (a whole 'nother 18 holes of Golf....its The US Open).
After getting a good night’s sleep, Ben easily won the U.S. Open the following day, the only player of the three to shoot a round under par.
Ben Hogan would go on to dominate golf like never before, winning in 1953 the unprecedented “Hogan Slam” of three straight major tournaments. (He did not play in the fourth major—the PGA Championship—because he did not want to walk more than 18 holes a day.)
The car crash, and Hogan’s near death, many of his friends later said, made him a more outgoing and compassionate man. But despite everything he accomplished on the course after his accident, Hogan was convinced he had come as close to perfection in the months before the crash. His post-crash golf swing, recorded on film, is still used as an example of near-perfect ball striking and mechanics.
Only Hogan himself disagreed. “I was better in 1948 and ’49 than I’ve ever been,” he said, years later.
Pretty good article that addresses stuff Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods have in common. Its apparently from 2013 but still an interesting read, sorta On-Topic to this thread title and to wonders of if Tiger can make a comeback....or at least that question addressed around the time of the US Open 2 years ago.... :
http://espn.go.com/golf/usopen13/story/_/id/9360207/tiger-woods-ben-hogan-lot-common-golf
The words that comprise this post are a condensed version of the article
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hit-by-a-bus-how-ben-hogan-hit-back-24870580/?no-ist
By Gilbert King
smithsonian.com
Two way miss off the tee, a scrambling % that would literally make some amateurs cringe, and strokes gained putting numbers that are somewhere between mediocre and poor. His proximity to the hole numbers are actually very good, especially from the fairway. Problem is he rarely finds the fairway and can't make a putt once he's on the green. Basically, he can't drive the ball and his short game sucks. You can get away with one of those but combined it's a disaster.
No doubt Man. Despite the fact I totally hate being tempted by (or even presented with really) Golf Matchups priced worse than -155.
I'm real pleased to see JDay's nice start. Hope he doesn't encounter problems with that Vertigo again here.
That OOsthuizen vs. JDay Rd. 1 matchup is exciting, both -4 thru 12...
gonna be fascinating to see the afternoon results if the weather goes to shit. Its cold as a witches tit on the course, throw some water down on to that and ugh. Lucky ass guys with early tee times....quite possibly.
Lotta guys posting good to great numbers thus far.
Late Round Kevin Na fade has entered onto my radar if he posts another good number Rd 2....-3 or better I suppose. I'd likely leave him alone Rd. 3 depending on who he's against look to fade him Final Round.
Sergio Rd. 4 fade has to always get consideration lol.
Maybe this is where that don't work though and Serj don't choke!!! That'd be wild to see. Were he to take this it'd be so huge, outhouse to penthouse like *flash*
Same for me but just matchups on Square Parlay Crap lol 7117 Sergio Garcia (1st Rnd) -155* <small>vs</small> Patrick Reed (1st Rnd)
again....-155, thats my "breaking point" & Sergio scares me but I really liked how he looked at Chambers Bay....removing his Rd. Two 75 (4 over) which he was unable to overcome but he closed out with a 3 under 68!!!
I LOVE 128 Sergio Garcia (Tourn) -145* <small>vs</small> Phil Mickelson (Tournament) so much, WAY too much. I'm disciplined with Sergio so that too is just on parlays.
I gotta be disciplined with Sergio. I've had some real stressful "ordeals" with this guy.
I genuinely feel real positive about him here though. I've said that so many times before that he really needs to send me a check at this point lol.
This feeling might be my most positive about Sergio yet though...I feel like 36/1 was a good investment. I like that number.
I'd like it even more if he'd have improved on that -3 he had thru 10 and now still has thru 16 :>(.
I was really really hoping he'd post -5.
Nothing is ever easy with Sergio though.
