Was Ben Hogan a technical golfer?

Andrew sent me the following quote from Ben Hogan;

“If you were teaching a child to open a door, you would help the child learn about the door knob, so he could open the door for himself. You would not open the door and explain what you did.” Golfers should not be asked to memorize body positions, they should be improving their insights about cause and effect with playful learning approaches.

The part I really like is “they should be improving their insights about cause and effect with playful learning approaches.

While many will think Ben Hogan was a technical golfer, that sentence sums up why he was so successful. When it came to the crunch his attitude was not about body positions or technical thought – it was almost certainly about playing.

Nick Faldo had a similar mindset. Although most will think he spent two long years rebuilding his golf swing with David Leadbetter, each afternoon he headed to the golf course and played the game. One ball, tournament conditions and a playful mindset (he hit all sorts of shots required to get the job done. He wasn’t thinking technique). The swing tweaking may have contributed to his later success, but those nine-hole sessions certainly wouldn’t have hurt him.

The point here is you have to dig a little deeper into why some legends of the game have been successful. The truth lies beneath the surface. And I’m convinced the really great players have a significant part of their makeup focused on playing the game, not technique. This is despite how many books they write to the contrary or what the golfing media portrays.

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