Ben Hogan's True Equipment Specifications

Recently, Jeff Martin over at www.jeffygolf.com, was able to get the measurements of Ben Hogan's irons from the USGA House. In particular a set of 1953 irons Hogan used and a ‘practice’ set that he also used. You can follow the thread at this link:

http://jeffygolf.com/showthread.php?398-Ben-Hogan-s-iron-specs-some-myths-busted&p=3967#post3967

His 1953 set had different lie angles than his ‘practice’ set. We don’t have the measurement of the 1953 iron lengths. However, I will assume that Hogan used the same length irons as his practice set.

Here’s a look at the lie angle specs:

1-iron: 54.6°

2-iron: 55.6°

3-iron: 57.2°

4-iron: not available

5-iron: 59.3°

6-iron: 60.2°

7-iron: 61.7°

8-iron: 61.7°

9-iron: 62.6°

PW: 62.5°

SW: not available

Here’s the lengths (based off the practice set):

1-iron: not available

2-iron: 38-1/2”

3-iron: 38-0”

4-iron: 37-1/2”

5-iron: 37-0”

6-iron: 36-3/8”

7-iron: 36-0”

8-iron: 35-3/8”

9-iron: 35-1/4”

PW: not available

SW: 34-7/8”

And here are the swingweights (based off the practice set):

1-iron: not available

2-iron: C8

3-iron: C7

4-iron: C7

5-iron: C9

6-iron: C8

7-iron: C8

8-iron: C7

9-iron: D2

PW: not available

SW: D5

So, what do we see?

His clubs were very short in length. Hogan was only about 5’6” tall, but he had no problem with making his clubs rather short in length. Even back then, they were about ½” shorter than vintage iron standards.

His lie angles were fairly flat. But, we have to understand that for every ½” difference in shaft length. That equates to 1° in effective lie angle. So, Hogan’s clubs with relation to today’s standard were more like this (rough approximation):

1-iron: 7° flat

2-iron: 6° flat

3-iron: 5.5° flat

4-iron: 5.5° flat

5-iron: 4° flat

6-iron: 4° flat

7-iron: 3° flat

8-iron: 3.5° flat

9-iron: 2.5° flat

PW: 3° flat

SW: 1.5° flat

His clubs also had a very light swingweight to them. However, we would need to get a better idea of the total weight of the club and the MOI to understand more. That’s part of the problem with swingweight, Hogan may have had very heavy static weight clubs that would be difficult to swing with any real velocity. But if the weight was primarily located towards the butt end of the club, the swingweight will drop.

I have been told by people who have hit his irons how stiff and difficult they were to hit. Give this information, I think it is within reason that Hogan may have put an inordinate amount of weight on the butt end of his clubs.

Once again, thanks to Jeff Martin and the USGA people for putting this together.

3JACK