Review of Mr Hogan The Man I Knew by Kris Tschetter

Title of book: 

Name(s) of author(s): 

Type of book 

Non-fiction memoir

Topic of book 

LPGA player Kris Tschetter reveals publicly for the first time the details of her friendship with golf legend Ben Hogan - and Hogan's mentoring of her and golf swing instruction.

My Review 

Mr. Hogan, The Man I Knew (compare prices), is a great book. It reveals a side of Ben Hogan that not many people know about - which is the reason Tschetter says she wrote the book.

Tschetter, who played for two decades on the LPGA Tour, was on the golf team at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth in the mid- to late 1980s. While there, her parents got her (and her brothers) student memberships at Shady Oaks Country Club, Ben Hogan's club.

Hogan has always been portrayed as a hard, steely, intimidating individual. As a jerk, basically. And Tschetter writes that the first thing she was told upon showing up at Shady Oaks was to leave Hogan alone - if he wants to talk to you, she was told, he will. Otherwise, leave him alone.

But a funny thing happened. Tschetter says she was so young that she started chatting up Hogan anyway, too naive to be intimidated - and Hogan responded in a friendly manner.

Tschetter began practicing on Shady Oaks' "Little Nine" - and Hogan, during his daily routine of meandering the course, occasionally hitting balls - began stopping to watch her practice. And eventually, he became her teacher.

What grew over the ensuing years was a genuine and very close friendship. Tschetter believes she was the granddaughter Hogan never had. Their relationship was playfully antagonistic, Tschetter writes in Mr. Hogan, The Man I Knew, and a source of great amusement - and surprise - to other Shady Oaks members.

She writes of the generous, funny, joking, playful side of the man - sides of Hogan rarely seen before. Can you picture Ben Hogan pressing his face up against a window and making funny faces at children walking by? Tschetter writes about that, and how endearing it was.

There are plenty of insights into Hogan's thoughts about golf and the swing, too, in Mr. Hogan, The Man I Knew. Hogan stressed over and over, every day, the importance of the grip - right down to roles played by the individual fingers of each hand. I'm not good enough to put his thoughts on that into action, but it was fascinating nonetheless.

Their relationship really didn't come to public light until the 1991 US Women's Open was played a few miles away from Shady Oaks at Colonial, and Hogan showed up on the course late in the final round to support Tschetter.

This book was really a lot of fun to read, and I feel like I know Ben Hogan much better now that I've read it. Thanks to Kris Tschetter for deciding to share her story with us.

Would you recommend this to a friend? 

Brent Kelley, Golf Guide, says: