“NO film scenario writer,” wrote the Glasgow Herald’s golf correspondent, “could have thought out a more dramatic story than that unfolding during this day for golfing memory.”
The closing stages of the 1953 Open at Carnoustie were hugely absorbing but the great US golfer, Ben Hogan, kept his nerve to win by four strokes. Four of his rivals tied for second place.
“Timing is all-important in golf,” our writer added. “All good golfers have it in the execution of their strokes, but only the great can time their supreme effort with the same perfection. Ben Hogan, the greatest golfer who has played in this country since Bobby Jones himself, did just that today when ... he won the Open Championship at the first attempt ... Hogan has more than lived up to his American reputations as ‘Mr Golf’ and ‘Little Ice Water’, and he won the admiration and praise of the most educated golf audience in the world by his deportment and play.”
In the words of the Open Championship website, Hogan was “followed by a huge gallery who were mesmerised by a determined man in a white cap, cigarette in hand, glaring stare permanently in place, who swung so efficiently and played such precise golf. They loved him.”
Hogan, who is pictured here with the Carnoustie provost, W. McLaughlan, won five of the six tournaments he entered in 1953, including The Masters and the US Open. He had made a remarkable recovery from injuries sustained in a car accident in 1949.
Carnoustie is the venue for this year’s Open.
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