Great Hogan History
Written: Feb 03 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: excellent durability
Cons: hard to find someone to repair, and you must have a good swing to begin with
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| poseidon's Full Review: Ben Hogan Apex Irons |
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (ok it was still Earth!), I used to play golf competitively. I played for my high school golf team and was also involved in a student-aged golf league. I played golf nearly every day, twelve months a year. I lived in South Florida, one of the great golf Meccas of the world.
I gave up golf shortly after I graduated high school. Quite frankly, the appeal of the sport diminished. The competition made the game more work and less fun. I found myself getting very upset over simple misses and bad putts. Rather than continue, I put my clubs away.
Last year, I was asked if I would play golf with a woman I was dating. I wasn’t really interested in playing, but I was interested in spending time with her (isn’t that sweet?). Anyhow, to make a long story short, I pulled my clubs out of storage.
My irons are a set of Ben Hogan Producers. I have the Driving Iron through the Pitching Wedge. These clubs were made prior to oversized club faces, graphite or carbon fiber shafts, and any other host of tricks used by manufacturers to make a bad golf swing into a decent golf shot. To use these clubs properly, you have to actually swing the club properly.
The irons still, after 14 years of storage, deliver a fantastic and crisp shot. When used properly, balls are delivered down the middle of the fairway with great distance. They are reasonably lightweight.
They have held up under various conditions. The actual club heads my irons have taken a beating – they have been hit against rock and stones, tree roots, and themselves in transport. They are not the prettiest clubs to look at, however, they hold up under most any given circumstance.
The only problems I have run into regarding my Hogan clubs is that the shafts have lost their structural integrity. I don’t think this is the fault of the manufacturer. Keep in mind, these clubs were produced about 1980, and were used primarily in the salty climate of South Florida. They were exposed to rain on many occasions while playing in tournaments. So far, I have snapped three shafts simply by hitting balls.
This leads to a second minor downside, and is Hogan-specific this time. Replacing a shaft on a Hogan golf club is not as simple as taking your club to a pro shop for repair. Instead, you need to find someone who works on Hogan clubs. My local pro shop explained to me that Hogan clubs are manufactured in a unique way and only Hogan/AMF shafts will fit Hogan club heads. I don’t believe the pro shop was making this up, because they work on every other brand of clubs.
In Denver, where I now reside, there is only one company that works on Hogan clubs. I am guessing the number of people who work on them in whatever area you reside is similarly small. This is something to keep in mind if you are purchasing any set of Hogan clubs.
Would I recommend a set of Producers to someone looking for a set of used clubs? Definitely, but only if you have either good golfing ability, or if you are interested in learning how to hit a ball properly.
Would I recommend a new set of Ben Hogan irons? Again, yes. I think they are built very well, and have proven they can hold up over time and adversity to the elements.
By the way, while I am no longer dating that woman, I have re-discovered the fun in the sport, and play semi-regularly. Golf can be fun, I just won’t keep score!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
poseidon
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 - Top 200 |
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Member: Jeffrey Schwartz
Location: Highlands Ranch, Colorado, USA
Reviews written: 511
Trusted by: 1100 members
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