The first full-scale biography of one of the most complex and fascinating athletes of the twentieth century. Ben Hogan was a hero no one knew. What drove him to practice until his hands bled.? What private demons built the high walls that surrounded him? Did he even know how he hit a golf ball with such godlike precision? He played the game with “the burning frigidity of dry ice,” as Herbert Warren Wind wrote, and built a legend in a cloud of mystique that still captivates golfers today. The components of his mystique were easy to see: a silent, almost eerie concentration that intimidated his opponents, a presence any politician or actor would envy, and an ability to hit a ball so squarely it sizzled as it left his club.

Ben Hogan won four U.S. Opens in six years, three of them following a near fatal auto collision. His injuries limited him to six tournaments in 1953, he won five of them—three were majors. It was arguably the greatest year in the history of professional golf. Magazines placed his face on their covers, New York City gave him a ticker-tape parade, and Hollywood made a movie of his life. Yet even in the midst of all this acclaim, myth distorted and obscured Ben Hogan.

Hogan is the never-revealed story of this thundering contradiction…of a man who succeeded on the most public of stages while somehow revealing very little of himself. From the poverty and the suicidal death of his father in his youth, to the failure and conflict stalking him into middle age, Hogan’s a rare sports book. Combining interviews with Byron Nelson, Jack Nicklaus, Sam Snead, and scores of other golf professionals, and insights from Hogan’s friends and business associates, Hogan traces the life of an amazing man and tells an unforgettable story.