Customer Reviews

Quotable Hogan (Potent Quotables)

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Before Ben Hogan's sad passing in July 1997 there were only 5 books about his life and his work. Of there 5 there were only 2 that were anywhere near biographical "Hogan the Man Who Played for Glory" by Gene Gregston and "My Partner Ben Hogan" by Jimmy Demaret. Neither was authorised. Of the rest 2 were Hogan's classic instruction books and the last a photographic coffee table book by Martin Jenkins. All very good books.

Since Hogan's death much more has been written some of it good, some great (Curt Sampson), but unfortunately some seem to want to take the great man's name in vane. In my opinion there are 2 books in the latter category that fall foul of this in exploiting the name of the most revered golfer ever. One of the titles is "As Hogan Said....." by Randy Voorhees, this other title is is "Quotable Hogan".

Quotable Hogan is a collection of quotes by Hogan and others including fellow professionals, writers and his wife Valerie that have all probably been heard and read before and now repeated again, some for the umpteenth time. Hogan said very little, so this book has had to be padded out with large print, wide spacing and comments by other people. On some pages, although it will be argued that it is done for emphasis, there is only 1 quote printed. The maximum is 4 over 129 pages (which includes the acknowledgements and meagre photography etc.).

I am a collector of Hogan literature, as a devotee I feel that not only is Mr Hogan's name been exploited but so are the people like me. I am sure Mr Hogan would not have had approved and neither do I.

Incidentally, I believe it was Valerie Hogan (not Ben) who said, "Why don't you hit them closer to the hole"? (page 82, quote 8).

I also am an avid Ben Hogan admirer and reader of works about him, and I found this book very informative. Yeah, I've read some of these quotes before, but a lot of them I hadn't, and that's the purpose of a book like this---to bring all his best stuff together in one book. Author Rich Skyzinski did all the research that would have taken me months or years on my own. Hogan didn't say much over the years, but that's exactly what makes this book so valuable; it digs out all his best quotes from over the years. I loved it!, and I've met Hogan--several times, and at length---and I think he would have gotten a kick out of it because of the author's diligence.