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Dustin Johnson confidently proclaimed he could win nine tournaments this season in the build-up to the Sentry Tournament of Champions earlier this month.
It is a bold claim bearing in mind only six players have accomplished the feat in PGA Tour history and just two of those – Tiger Woods in 2000 and Vijay Singh in 2004 – have come since 1950.
Johnson was adamant: “I believe so. I definitely think I can,” he said when asked if nine wins in a campaign is possible. “There’s a lot of really good players out here on tour and for me to do that I’m going to have to play some really good golf, but I’m definitely capable of it.”
The 33-year-old got his quest off to a good start by promptly winning at the Kapalua Resort – beating Jon Rahm by eight shots – but even if Johnson does step into the winner’s circle nine times in 2018, he will need to repeat the feat to match the great Ben Hogan.
Hogan is the only man to accomplish it twice (he won 13 times in 1946 and on 10 occasions in 1948), while the 1953 season incredibly saw him win three of the four majors. Having already sealed the Masters and the US Open, Hogan memorably lifted the Claret Jug at Carnoustie and with The Open returning to the Angus links in July, what better time to relive that remarkable triumph.
In 1949, Hogan nearly died after a horrific accident when his car collided with a Greyhound bus and was so badly injured that he had to learn how to walk again. His recovery and return to golf became the basis for the film Follow the Sun, starring Glenn Ford, yet remarkably, just a year after his crash, he triumphed at the US Open. He had won the US Open twice more, in 1951 and ‘53 – as well as two Masters – by the time The 1953 Open Championship rolled around.
Then aged 40, Hogan had never competed at The Open, and ultimately his only other visit to Britain would be for the 1956 Canada Cup at Wentworth, but on his first and only attempt, he became the Champion Golfer of the Year. In typically diligent fashion, Hogan arrived in the UK a week early – not just to familiarise himself with the course but to practise with the smaller, 1.62-inch golf ball which he had not used before. The preparation would pay off.
By the time he arrived at Carnoustie as an eight-time major winner, Hogan’s reputation preceded him as contemporary-turned-legendary British TV commentator Peter Alliss remembers. “He was a total mystery,” said Alliss, who would go on to finish ninth at The Open in 1953. “He was from another planet.
“We were all in awe of him. He was like royalty – people would approach him differently.”
Separating fact from fiction surrounding Hogan’s sole Open experience has become almost impossible – there are rumours that he almost went home when he found his room at the Bruce Hotel did not have a private bathroom and that he offered to buy the greenkeeper a lawnmower upon first seeing the course. But after comfortably coming through the two qualifying rounds, the man dubbed “The Wee Ice Mon” by the locals was ready to make history and had some famous support in his corner. On the second day, Frank Sinatra, who was performing at a concert in Dundee, was in the gallery and told the enraptured media that “all America is rooting for Hogan."
An opening round of 73 was followed by a 71 to leave Hogan two behind the leaders at the halfway mark but he shared top spot with Roberto De Vicenzo following a third-round 70. Like all golfing greats, the American came into his own over the final 18 holes – his closing round of 68 set a course record for Carnoustie, clinching victory by four shots from a quartet of players. He birdied the 565-yard, par-5 sixth hole in both the last two rounds.
How he did so was by combining precision and bravery – eschewing the open expanse of fairway on the right to drive down the narrow alley between the bunkers and the out of bounds on the left, a strip of land since known as Hogan’s Alley. In a small town on Scotland’s east coast, Hogan had tamed the toughest venue on The Open rota.
Unsurprisingly, the only question the people of Carnoustie wanted to know of the newly crowned Champion Golfer of the Year was whether he would return. “I don't know when I'll be back,” admitted Hogan at the prize-giving. “But I'll try to make it next year.”
The American never did come back to The Open but as they prepare to head to Carnoustie this summer, the best golfers that 2018 has to offer still can learn a lot from the way the great man navigated one of the toughest courses in the world 65 years ago.
The R&A