Possessing a firm grasp of golf's historical record, Eldrick Tiger Woods was surprisingly succinct in his assessment of one of golf's most iconic figures: William Ben Hogan.
"He could hit it pretty decently," a grinning Woods said of the man he caught Sunday with the 64th win of his career, third all-time, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.
That's it?
"Yeah," Woods said, still smiling. "What more is there? I mean, isn't that what you think of first with Hogan?"
He's right. It is.
But without a doubt there is so much more to the Hogan mystique: the struggles early in his career that twice sent him back home to Texas, the near-fatal automobile accident that prevented him from competing regularly after 1950, his legendary devotion to and affection for practice, which abetted his intensely private inclinations.
Above all, though, Hogan -- sinewy strong though only 5-foor-9, which earned him the nickname, "Bantam Ben" -- really could hit the ball. He was the steward of the so-called "secret," which he dug out of the dirt with manic commitment. His reward for countless hours of toil was 64 PGA TOUR titles and nine major championships.
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