Nothing in golf quite compares to Hogan’s dominance in the 1940s and 1950s. The Ben Hogan swing rebuild, which he eventually shared through Five Lessons and other insights, shook the golf world—but without the proper context, it may do more harm than good.

I really enjoy this video analysis from Golf Digest. This article reinforces the same key points while adding another explanatory layer. I aim to dive deep into why Hogan’s swing changes, as outlined in Five Lessons, were such a perfect fit for what he wanted to achieve.

I’ll finish by highlighting what we can learn and apply to our own swing changes.

More than just Fixing a Duck Hook?

A current golf swing is the result of years of effort to mold a particular technique. In Hogan’s case, he started from a fear of the duck hook, which ultimately shaped his entire swing to avoid that shot. He was inspired by the idea, “If you want to beat the hook, learn how to fade,” and incorporated several key “fade” elements into his swing:

• He weakened his grip
• He opened the blade in the backswing
• He cupped his lead wrist in the top backswing position
• He further opened the blade in p4-p5 

But this isn’t all about fading the golf ball. It goes much deeper.

The weaker grip helped align his strike by keeping the hands closer to the body, rather than pushing them toward the target. In other words, the weak grip not only made him more “fade-biased,” but it also forced a complete shift in his timing and follow-through execution.

The blade opening might seem like a simple fade move at first glance, but that’s far from the case when you consider Hogan’s chest rotation. The spiraling of his lead arm actually caused him to rotate more in the backswing, which in turn created a more “hook-like” hand- and clubhead path in the downswing. This also led to an unforced blade opening early in the downswing. In my opinion, this wasn’t something Hogan did intentionally; it happened as a result of the “manipulated top position.” As a result, his clubface was much more open in the mid-downswing compared to modern golf swings.

The cupped lead wrist is another intriguing aspect. To the naked eye, it may appear as though the clubface is “open,” but there’s more to it. This position creates significant stretch in the wrist, which leads to an automatic “bounce back” of the club from the top of the backswing. It acts as an early centrifugal force outlet, which also makes the downswing more draw-biased in terms of shallowness and path.

This is where the “lead with lower body” concept comes into play. All the elements mentioned above are actually promoting a shallower, inside downswing. Without leading with the hips (which was a power move in the form of a sling effect, also known as the X-factor), Hogan would have likely duffed the ball severely. The earlier hip opening introduced the negative component—the out-to-in steepening action of the entire core—that he needed to create the unique Ben Hogan matchup in his swing.

The TV Demonstration and what isn’t Communicated

In this amazing one-minute video, he explains his swing. In just 60 seconds, it’s one of the best explanations ever made. However, one minute simply isn’t enough to capture the full depth of his technique.

The difference between the longer swing and the tight “on the body swing” raises several questions that I aim to answer to the best of my abilities. Let’s start with one right off the bat—HOW did he generate and accelerate the speed in the clubhead?

Power Answer 1/2 – The Club Exit – Low and Left or Something Else?

In modern golf, a common instruction is to go low and left in the follow-through. More often than not, this results in the club exiting left as well (represented by the red circle in the image below).

Ben Hogan’s hands went left due to the induced body rotation (which will be explained further down), but his club moved much more upwards, as shown by the green circle. Halfway through the follow-through, his hands reached toward the sky, which contrasts with the outcome of most modern instruction.

In my opinion, he used other than low and left intentions to achieve this.

The release imagery in Five Lessons only adds more confusion to the mix. It represents an intentional low shot alteration, where the basic power structure is already in place.

Long story short, my point is this: The acceleration part of the power dynamic, in my opinion, lies in the upward exit of the golf club. Since Mr. Hogan played with such flat clubs and likely struck the ball with relatively low grip pressure, this creates the centripetal counterpart to the centrifugal force outlet. The weak lead hand grip and its requirement for “close to the body impact conditions” manifested a club action that, in my opinion, is responsible for how the wrists behave during the swing.

Power Answer 2/2 – The Downswing Arc Usage Explained

I started backwards here for a reason. In my opinion, the use of the “fade components” actually led to more “hookish behavior” in the form of shallowness and width in the downswing. To reiterate: the stretch-short cycle in the wrists (whether also boozted intentionally or not), along with the lead arm blade opening, created this behavior, which was further amplified by the following:

Mr. Hogan moved onto his lead side earlier than anyone in modern golf. He slid laterally. This created more arm space in the downswing and prevented him from getting “stuck.”

All of the above are entry power components. They contribute power to the swing arc.

More Ben Hogan Power Talk – Another Perspective

If I take the liberty of sidestepping the impact of intentional body movements for this segment and focus solely on the wrists and the club, my analysis is this: Hogan created a massive amount of stored energy in his wrist set (with the cupped lead wrist), which caused the club to shoot back from its starting position (otherwise, his lag angle would have been even greater), thus generating a centrifugal force outlet.

The key to better golf is to initiate the club’s blade closing early enough by allowing it to happen naturally. Hogan had worked this behavior into his swing through his early years as a professional, when he was known for hitting big hooks (as so well explained in the Golf Digest video). The way he used the cupped wrist to increase the centrifugal force outlet also helped draw his hands closer to his body, as this was a counteraction to the club’s natural release.

The weak grip aligns with a close-to-the-body hand position at impact, while a strong grip leads to a separation of the arms and the body.

Hogan had cracked parts of the golf swing code.

He was able to use even more downswing depth and width by applying “fade components,” and now he could use these “hookish conditions” to fuel one of golf’s most impressive traits: the most aggressive and synchronized through-the-ball rotation. This, in itself, became a massive power source.

The Master of Plusses and Minuses

To use the great analogy from Jim Hardy, or even Tyler Ferrell (talking steep and shallow), Hogan employed a ton of slice components to, very counterintuitively, create more hook-like behavior in the downswing. He then perfectly matched this with the best rotation (fade-like) in golf history.

I know, it all sounds weird and strange, but through all my experiments, it actually works this way. Maybe that’s why Mr. Hogan said, “Try to do the opposite of what you think, and then you’ve got a great golf swing.”

The Blade Closer – Avoiding the Nose Dive with Equipment.

Mr. Hogan was so efficient in closing down the clubface (as mentioned above) that he could afford to keep it open longer. He could even afford equipment that would make most golfers too fade-biased. I don’t know the exact number, but rumors say his irons were something like 7 degrees flat. This was no accident. The flat golf clubs put you in a positive spiral, actually allowing the centrifugal force outlet without requiring you to respond negatively to it.

In professional air shows, pilots dump the nose before making a turn. If you dump it too much, you’ll spin out of control. The “too big dump” is represented by too upright clubs (I know, this is complicated stuff), and they can spin out of control if you allow them.

Personally, I play with 4-degree flat clubs and a 53-degree lie angle driver (instead of the stock 59-60 degrees), and I find my power application much more effortless and controlled this way.

And there’s even more goodness to it. Remember the weak lead hand grip and how it matches up with being close to the body at impact? When you start playing with flat clubs, you have less and less motivation to raise your hands at impact, since low grip pressure, low hands, and flat clubs form a beautiful marriage.

What to Learn from the Ben Hogan Swing Rebuild?

The first lesson is quite clear: Do not take another man’s medicine. Applying Hogan’s secret without his subconscious engine (downswing usage and club exit) just created too many steep/outside components. The critique says that he created a generation of slicers. My opinion is that he opened the box of golf technique mysteries.

The upbringing and molding of his motion is fascinating. Hogan’s early days involved learning to create a big hook swing first to get the power going. The power dynamics of actually rotating the clubface like Hogan did in his early days is a great centrifugal force stimulator. This style, even though it didn’t immediately present him with majors, did get him on the PGA Tour. Learning a hook first and then learning how to control it is a pretty neat training philosophy.

Do you need the Hogan complexity? We’re talking about the best of the best here, and the added manipulation in the backswing forced Hogan to train more than most. I would argue that the foundations of his subconscious engine would be good enough for 99% of all golfers. At least it’s what I teach in my FMM Swing System.

Thank you for reading.

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