Golf · 1950 · Ardmore, USA
The Miracle at Merion
Sixteen months after a crash that left doctors doubting he would walk again, Ben Hogan plays 36 holes in a single day and wins a play-off for the US Open.
Won 18-hole play-off
Result
16
Months after near-fatal crash
5
Later majors won
In February 1949 Ben Hogan's car collided head-on with a bus on a foggy Texas highway. He threw himself across the passenger seat to shield his wife, a move that likely saved his life and left him with a fractured pelvis, collarbone, ankle and ribs. Doctors were unsure he would walk normally again, and competitive golf was not really under discussion.
Sixteen months later, at the 1950 US Open at Merion, the format still required the final 36 holes to be played in a single day. Hogan played them with his legs wrapped, and by the closing holes they were barely taking his weight. The photograph of his one-iron approach into the 72nd green, the swing held against the crowd behind it, became one of the sport's most reproduced images. He holed the putt that followed to force an 18-hole play-off.
He won the play-off the next day against Lloyd Mangrum and George Fazio. Five more majors followed over the rest of his career, and this is still the one people mean when they call Hogan the toughest competitor golf has produced.
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