Over the past three decades of teaching golf I must have heard 50 different versions of Hogan’s secret. This is not to say he didn’t have one but most people think he took his “secret” to the grave. For those that don’t know about Ben Hogan here is a quick history of maybe the most iconic figure in golf history. He was known as the Wee Iceman and the Hawk. He was an intimidated man and said to be not very warm just about everyone that came near him. He was a man of few words that wasn’t too concerned if people liked him. Described by his peers as a very as tough-minded, discipline, single-minded accomplished player. 
William Ben Hogan August 13, 1912 – July 25, 1997 Hogan is notable for his profound influence on golf swing theory and his legendary ball-striking ability.He won all four majors being one of four players all time to accomplish the slam.
From 1938 through 1959, Hogan won 63 professional golf tournaments. Hogan served in the Army from March 1943 to June 1945 stationed at Fort Worth, Texas. In 1949 he and his wife Valerie survived a head on collision with a Greyhound bus in Texas. He is given credit for throwing his body in front of his wife before impact saving her life and his own. The accident double fractured his pelvis, broke his collarbone, left ankle, chipped a rib and caused blood clots. Hogan was 36 years old at this time. In short, he almost died, deemed done with golf for life. Surprising all he returned to the PGA tour in 1950 at the LA Open and tied with Sam Snead before loosing in a playoff.
For more information about Ben Hogan see, ESPN Hogan, Ben Hogan from Dictionary, Hogan from A. N. Biography online
Hogan said on more than one occasion that the secret to his game was “in the dirt.” He believed in practice and practice he did. One of the most discussed characteristics of Hogan’s game was that he fought the hook shot and did everything in his game to avoid it. According to Billy Harmon, brother of Butch Harmon and son of Claude Hogan, Hogan never had a problem hooking the ball. He did however have a great fear of hooking the ball.
So let’s go through a few of the secrets;
1. Keeping the elbows close together through the swing. He advocated keeping t
he elbows as close to together as possible from the start of the swing, during and swing until the end of the swing. Done by good players and rarely done by poor players. Keeping the elbows close together allows the proper rotation of the arms during the swing. I have used bungee cords, rope and even fishing wire to get students to keep their elbows close together. If you struggle with this it may be from one or both shoulders having very little flexibility. Work on your shoulder flexibility so you can make this motion.
2. Start the down swing with the left hip moving towards the target! 
For some reason this has been argued over the years and I don’t know why. The left hip, Hogan would argue initiated the down swing and acted like the accelerator. The left hip starts towards the target before the end of the back swing. If you measure a tour player from the face on position at the top of the swing you will see this motion. The zipper of the player will move to where the left hip was at the start of the down swing. Remember, the left hip first moves towards the target then rotates. This also shallows out the angle of attack at impact and help to keep the ball from hooking and keep you from hitting shots fat.
3. Hogan felt the swing plane was very important and one of the first to make it a priority in teaching the golf swing. Without getting too far in the weeds he 
explained swing plane by using a tilted glass pane to show where the club, hands and shoulder should travel. Hogan took a fairly difficult concept to explain and made it easy to understand in his book Five Lesson. This was the first golf book I read that helped me understand the golf swing. For those of you that slice imagine swinging the club on a tilted arc so that the club never makes contact with the glass pane, illustrated on the Five Lesson book cover. If you do this it will cure most of your slice. If the club is traveling at the target and the face is pointed to the target at impact the ball will fly straight towards the target.
4. In 1955 Hogan did a story in Life magazine telling his secret about cupping the left wrist at the top of the swing. Few believe that was really his secret. Hogan revealed that the “secret” involved cupping the left wrist at the top of the back swing and using a weaker left hand grip (thumb more on top of the grip as opposed to on the right side). Hogan did this to prevent himself from ever hooking the ball off the tee. By positioning his hands in this manner, he ensured that the club face would be slightly open upon impact, creating a fade (left to right ball flight) as opposed to a draw or hook (right to left ball flight). For those of you who hook the ball this may help but if you slice the ball do not try this.
5. Never see the tan line in your right hand during the back and down swing. Take you hand with your finger straight and point the pinky area of your hand away from you at eye level. It will look like you are doing a Karate chop away from you. You will notice that you have two different looking skin surfaces, the back of the hand and the palm of the hand. If you lay your hand flat on a table and putt your eyes at the same level you will notice the two different shades of skin. Start with the club in the address position, notice that you do not see the skin of the palm of your right hand. Slowly take a back swing looking at your right hand and make sure you never see the palm skin of the right hand. You should continue to not see the skin of your palm throughout the entire swing! This actually works and really helps golfers that open the club too much on the back swing.
6. Keep you thumbs attached to your hand?
Both hands require the thumbs to be in this somewhat uncomfortable position. This requires the top of the thumbs to be bent back away from the hand and the base of the thumb to be touching the hand up to the first knuckle. Most bad players grip the club with the bottom of the thumb separated from the hand. To do this correctly takes a little practice and a little strength.
7. Greg Norman promoted the Ben Hogan secret on how the right index finger and right wrist work in the golf swing.
As you can see in the picture it is attached to the wrist and right index finger. So imagine this, set up with a crook in your right finger. Then bend your index finger and right wrist away from the target to start the back swing. Bend your right arm at a 90 degree angle while making your right index finger work on an arc behind your right shoulder. Use the glass pain example for the path of the hands. Then on the down swing and impact keep the right wrist and index finger bent back. This has been a staple that many great teachers have used to teach their students. Greg Norman training aid at Amazon
8. When I worked at PGA West years ago I had the pleasure of working with another PGA Golf Professional named Jim. He had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Hogan in Texas. Too make a very long story much shorter I will edit it down. His friend was the pro at the club Mr. Hogan practiced at in his elder years. Jim knew Mr. Hogan practiced at his friends facility and had a plan. He decided to spy on Hogan while he practiced. He hid in the trees, laid in the grass and did everything a sniper might do to avoid detection. Hogan was rumored not to be happy about being bothered while practicing. Hogan didn’t hit balls on the normal part of the range but hit balls near a place where telephone and power wires were strung overhead.
Jim couldn’t figure out what the hell he was doing so he covertly moved closer avoiding detection. He then started to notice that it didn’t matter what club he hit the balls kept going between two specific wires. Jim couldn’t believe it so after Mr. Hogan left he went back to the clubhouse and asked the Pro, his friend what was going on. The pro explained he never had the courage to watch him practice and didn’t want to get caught watching him and be fired, so he had no idea. Jim slithered through the grass the next day and watched him hit balls for a couple of hours and again he kept hitting the ball through and in between the two wires with each club.
He went back to the shop and told his friend he had to know what was going on and why Mr. Hogan was doing this. With much trepidation his friend so go ahead if Mr. Hogan was in a “talking” mood but please don’t get him in trouble. About a half hour later Mr. Hogan came in to the shop and Jim was introduced to Mr. Hogan. Jim politely told Mr. Hogan that he had been watching him hit balls the last few days and Mr. Hogan nodded at him as if he knew. Jim then asked “if you don’t mind sir, I noticed that you kept hitting balls through the same two wires no matter what club you used. Were you working on trajectory.” With a moment of contemplation Mr. Hogan said, “of course, what else would I be working on.” He then left the golf shop without another word.
After all that time the message Jim received was, if you can’t control your trajectory you can’t play good golf.
I don’t pretend that these are the only so called secrets of Ben Hogan’s golf swing. These are just a few of the ones I am familiar with.
Jim Hartnett, PGA
www.myhome4golf.com
