If Tiger Woods can emulate Ben Hogan, he will surpass Jack Nicklaus as golf’s greatest ever

Tiger Woods needs four more major wins to equal Jack Nicklaus’ record, but he doesn’t need it to become golf’s greatest ever, PAUL KENT writes.

When Ben Hogan was ill and fading the news of his poor health was spoken about in the kind of hushed tones heard most often at funerals.

Hogan was never one to go easily at anything, so the whispers were as much about the man as the illness.

As Blackie Sherrod wrote soon after Hogan’s passing, just three months after Tiger Woods won his first major, in 1997: “It was as though he were standing there with a withering glance, ready to sear anyone who spoke aloud of a physical weakness.”

Hogan could be frosty at times, at least as often as he was charming. It suited him, his cold front creating a distance between him and the great unwashed that allowed the deeply private Hogan to remain comfortable, if not always others.

Legendary golfers Ben Hogan (1949) and Tiger Woods (2021) were both badly injured in respective car accidents.

When Tiger Woods survived his own brush with death earlier this week the news went worldwide, a ticker under every bulletin, which is also typical of his times.

Tiger is a worldwide brand. His dark secrets are tabloid fodder, his golf now simply one part of the man all the world has an opinion on.

There is a kind of symmetry to it all, though.

Across America columnists stuck for an idea wrote of the “eerie” similarity between Woods’ car accident earlier this week and the car accident that almost ended Hogan’s career, if not his life, in 1949 when, in reality, it was simply a coincidence.

Given the narrative that followed Hogan after his accident, though, Woods is about one below-par round from being declared the greatest ever now, surpassing Nicklaus.

At the moment he is jostling for position as the greatest ever with Jack Nicklaus, who took the crown from Hogan and has held it in his gentle grip even as Woods edged closer, and brushed against immortality, when he won his 15th major, the US Masters in 2019.

Champion golfer Ben Hogan is lifted from a train which brought him to his home town to recuperate from a near fatal auto accident. He was hospitalised in early February, 1949.

Some still held out for Nicklaus and his 18 majors, declaring it all a numbers game.

But Woods’s triple-axel in his Genesis earlier this week, of which he has no recollection, puts him in position to be a rare combination of Nicklaus and Hogan, which might end the debate once and for all.

Hogan’s legend was cemented, of course, after that horrific car accident in 1949 when he collided headfirst into a Greyhound bus whose driver thought it a good idea to overtake in fog.

Hogan was driving the other direction, heading home to Fort Worth.

One of the rarest of men who lived life without stain, the moment he realised the collision was inevitable he moved to shield his wife Valerie, leaning across her, without knowing his selfless act would save his life.

The steering column punctured through the seat that moments earlier he was leaning against.

He was in the car for about half an hour before being finally pulled free, his body in terrible shape.

He fractured a collarbone, broke an ankle, chipped a rib and had a double fracture of the pelvis. His eye was nearly swollen shut.

Tiger Woods’ vehicle lies on its side in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, after the golfing great rolled down an embankment. Picture: Patrick T. Fallon AFP

Hogan nearly died in hospital. Blood clots in his legs were not the problem but, when they moved to his lungs, his doctors began talking quietly in corridors.

Nobody expected Hogan to play again.

He did, though.

He would have circulation problems the rest of his life and every round of golf was its own trial but he would swing a club again, and well enough to win six of his nine majors.

It was considered the greatest ever comeback in sport.

Woods has already made a career of returning from injury but his five knee surgeries and his five back surgeries are golf inflicted.

The rod inserted in his leg this week that runs from just below his knee down through his ankle is invasive. Screws hold his ankle together.

The internal bleeding was so severe his leg was “uncovered”, meaning the skin peeled back, to release the pressure which could cause circulation problems.

Tiger’s ankle injury, suffered in his car accident, is a significant obstacle to overcome if he is any chance of ever playing golf again. Picture: William West/AFP

Some are hoping he might recover well enough to be able to continue playing rounds with his son Charlie.

From a medical perspective the ankle injury is routine but from a golfing standpoint it is significant.

Ankle injuries are among the worst for a golf swing.

It now appears long odds Woods will ever reach Nicklaus’ 18 major wins. He is 45 now and the 2019 Masters is his only major since 2007.

Hogan was 36 and at the peak of his game. Three weeks before his accident he was on the cover of Time magazine as the best golfer in the world, the interview containing a frightening premonition.

“It isn’t the golf, it’s the travel,” he said. “I want to die an old man, not a young one.”

Nicklaus would go on to take Hogan’s mantle as the greatest ever until Woods came to challenge.

Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors is still a record. Picture: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

He has only three-quarters of the majors Nicklaus has but such is the power of his celebrity many were already prepared to overlook that and declare Woods the greatest ever, citing a combination of modern competition and his powerful personality.

At that, Nicklaus fans just polish his major trophies.

Woods himself has always said the goal was Nicklaus’ 18 majors. Tournaments, weeks ranked number one, they paled in pursuit of Nicklaus’ tally.

Will another major win by Woods be enough? Will a tour win cement his comeback and provide the polish to surpass Nicklaus?

Nicklaus won his last Major, the US Masters, at 46.

Woods turns 46 in December. He might never reach Nicklaus’s magic number, but if he can return and sprinkle a little of the Hogan fairy dust over his career, on top of the 15 he already owns, the case is closed.

Will Tiger Woods be stranded on 15 majors? Digital artwork: Boo Bailey

TOOVES’ CAREER MOVE

IT was with a brief panic when news was received this week of Geoff Toovey’s appointment as an assistant coach for the Warringah Rats rugby team.

Not because Tooves was crossing to the dark side that is rugby union but because it might threaten his stellar appearances every Wednesday night on NRL360.

As anybody who knows the line-up knows, Tooves is the angry one on the show.

As well as picking up a whistle for the Rats he has also taken on the job as assistant coach for the NSW State of Origin women’s team.

Tooves is that rare voice in the game. His credentials are unquestioned and he carries not a gram of political correctness in his body, happy to call it as he sees it, damn the consequences.

It’s a trait that will benefit the Rats for as long as they are prepared to face honest assessments.

How it translates into the women’s dressing room is also something that some have questioned but in my time I’ve found that, as a group, the women are usually more resilient than the men, which will hold Tooves in good stead.

It would be terrible for the game to lose him.

NRL360 returns March 8 with Tooves to appear a couple nights later on Legends Night, alongside Benny Elias who in the wake of COVID-19 travel restrictions was forced to forego Thailand and head to Queensland to add several extra layers of tan to his swarthy complexion.

Originally published as If Tiger Woods can emulate Ben Hogan, he will surpass Jack Nicklaus as golf’s greatest ever