Don’t know that I have the ability to put this into practice but I love the clarity of your explanation , and your production values.

My 17 year old son started golfing 2 years ago, and read this book, and now won his PGA jr state championships! It works! He has Won over 20 Golf Tournaments in high school and around the country!

You’ve clarified the Hogan alignment very, very well. Thank you.

That drawing finally explained. Thanks.

Oh thank you, Luther! I remember seeing this 50 years ago when I started playing golf for the very first time, and you’re definitely correct on the confusing part and stance itself is not boxed like what it described in the picture.

Best video on this I have ever seen!

That just cleared up a bunch for me thanks. Ive struggled with this one thing particularly, and it can be a real pain. Awesome video.

I'm 50 yrs old and been golfing since I was 12. My first lessons were based on these principles. Since then I have added my own twist to things and developed some bad habits over the years. After watching this yesterday I went to the range and applied these principles to my game along with a change in my grip. I'm happy to say my driver is straightened out and longer than before and my irons are going straight. Thanks for posting this!

Another fantastic video. Clearly and simply explained 👍

You're a genius. I have read that book a 100 times and never saw how the close and open stance made it progressive. THANKS!

Brilliant explanation, this makes so much sense! Highly appreciated.

So much has made sense since I found this, similarly Steve Elkington talked about chipping opposite the left heel and not back in the stance in a YT video. Its been a real light bulb moment for me. Thank you !

I never tire of watching Mr. Hogan swing a golf club. Pure artistry, pure magic!

VERY creative! I love that you're using an old wood head driver. Can you imagine if Mr. Hogan and the other greats of his day had today's clubs/balls??!!!!

I've been teaching Ben Hogan's book/method for over 40 years. Luther Blacklock's explanation is exactly what I have been saying. Of the two schools on ball position, this one, Ben Hogan's, is better because you aren't moving the ball all over the place. Your body gets used to the ball being in one place and then you adjust your swing to the lie (up hill, down hill, side hill, and special wedges).

Super video, thank you. I love your respect by calling him ‘Mr Hogan’. Nice touch.

I am senior high handicap golfer. I have just used this foot position and my driver is now going straight and my 5 irons has a slight draw! (Never been able to draw before even after a course of lessons last year)

Three things need to be considered to understand the two approaches: 1) as clubs length change so does the angle of the hosel and shaft when the club is resting at its nominal loft angle; 2) if you open or close the stance where your arm and hands bottom out in the swing RELATIVE TO THE POSITION OF FRONT FOOT changes, and: 3) as clubs get longer they take more time to rotate down around the hands to the ball. When using a constant parallel stance the lead arm and hand will bottom out in their swing arc at the same place relative to the front foot. That being the case if you want to deliver the golf club to the ball at its nominal loft angle the club head will be different distances away from the body and behind the front foot due for different clubs due to the differences in shaft length and hosel/shaft angle. That is why as hosel / shaft angle increases as club are more lofted with shorter shafts the variable that changes to ensure consistent swing action is the BALL POSITION RELATIVE TO FRONT FOOT. The simple way to prove his is to keep swing mechanics constant in terms of where hands bottom out in swing arc relative to front foot and observe where each club positioned at nominal loft hits the ground. The inconsistent variable golfers create if using constant parallel stance and constant ball position (as suggested by Nicklaus) is that they don’t deliver the club to the ball at its nominal loft/shaft/hosel angle. In order to make contact with the ball placed near front heel they must deliver the shorter clubs with shafts more vertical than nominal adding loft to the club in the process. In Hogan’s method the variable which changes with club is the stance angle: parallel for mid-iron (e.g. 7i), closed for longer, open for shorter. What you will observe when doing that is the position of the hands at the bottom of their swing arc, relative to the position of front foot, changes. When you close the stance the hands will bottom out in their arc further back from the front foot than when parallel and when stance is opened the hands bottom out closer to the front foot. Why did Hogan do this? Review point #3 above. He realized that the longer shafted clubs take longer to swing down around the hands to impact than the shorter ones and require a wider swing arc. Closing and the opening the stance allowed Hogan to keep his swing mechanics the same; where hands were at impact relative to body when club swung down around them for all clubs. The closed stance put hands further back from fixed ball ball position as club head whipped around them on the longer shafts, the open stance moved the hands closer to the fixed ball position with the change in stance compensating for the differences in shaft length by moving position of hands bottoming out in their arc further back or closer to ball. This can be see by observation and experimentation which is how I figured it out. If you have a chronic slice or fade action on shots with longer clubs try keeping the swing mechanics and ball position the same by closing the stance relative to target (which will also require a face adjustment closed a bit and aiming a bit more inside of center on the ball). It should help straighten out the shots by moving your hands back relative to the ball through impact. It works because what puts slice / fade spin on a ball is usually the result of the hands being too far forward at impact and the hands pushing the face open.

Great video! Very well produced. There is also a third school of thought. You position the ball in your stance according to the lie you have. If the ball is sitting down in the rough, play it back. If it's a tight lie in the fairway maybe center of the stance. If you're in the first cut where the ball is sitting up a little, play it a little more forward. If it's on a tee play it off your left heel. If the wind is behind you and you want to hit it extra high, tee it up higher and play it off your left toe, etc... and anything in between. 😁

Excellent presentation! I’ve read and reviewed this wonderful book many times and have followed Mr. Hogan’s guidance for a number of years. Your demonstration of his foot position principles is spot on. The initial address “Constant” brings the proper squaring up for direction and the “Progressive” position allows for proper swing movement. Thank you for this excellent video!

Very well explained … I just ordered this book and it didn’t make sense till u explained it I’m gonna read it again and give this another go … we’ll done

Once I realized what you did here!!! hahaha very thankful for you! also you explain it so well. Had just played and was given this realization for my own game after watching your video!

Great video great lesson and Mr Hogan was probably the greatest ball striker.

Wonderfully done video here! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us!

in my 60s and why am I only finding this out now?!? off to try it out.

Light goes off!! Awesome thanks

Mr Hogan was a Guinness! It's undeniable! I have read his book several times and learn something each time I do! Thank you for your video and congratulations on your breakthrough insight!

Love the persimmon wood. I have a new TSR 2 driver. It’s much harder working the ball right to left and vice versa. Maybe even more so with the newer game improvement irons today.

great explanation love it! I wonder what mr hogan would think about my jumbomax ultralight grips and one-length irons

I learned to become a champion golfer by reading and following Ben Hogan's teachings of Power Golf !!!!!!!! Illustrations of Ben Hogan's swing and even putting stroke in Power Golf was the absolute best teaching method in the world of golf. Every beginning golfer should follow Ben Hogan's style of playing golf.

Great video, not only educational, but also entertainment-wise 👌

What a beautiful summary! Thank you

Very clear explanation, thanks Luther

I used to play to a 4 hcp and the best golf that I ever followed reading Hogan's book and playing with Powerbilt Persimmon woods, Hogan Apex PC irons from the mid 80s, and balata balls.

Brilliant...thank you.

Don’t miss the approach on setup. 2 hands on the club, slightly open feeling shoulder and arm triangle. Left elbow on the side of the torso at bottom of rib cage. Right arm higher at wrists and elbow slightly more in front, forearms even. No reaching with left or right arms but fully extended without locking. Good video representation.

Very good point about the ball position in relation to a line drawn across the toes.

Great channel all round... Quality

Couple of solid swings there!

Discovered this channel a couple weeks ago and am learning how to hit shots, thank you. My question in regards to the radial ball position is do the shoulders change angle according to the change in position of the feet? Thank you kind sir.

Well done

As a beginner, I read Mr Hogan's book and also Lesson Tee by Jack Nicklaus. Both advocate a constant ball position at the left heel, so I too learned to play this way. It worked great when I was young but after I turned 50 it became increasingly difficult to play the ball at the left heel (except driver and woods). Now my ball position is progressive. David Leadbetter says in his book that you should always place the ball across from your left armpit. That only worked for me for the driver; for the narrow wedge stance the ball feels like it is waaay out there towards the target. One more point: While visually it is easiest to align the ball relative to your feet, in reality what matters more is where the ball is in relation to your upper body.

Nice swing

My favorite was @ 2:00...The line up across his nuttt..toes.....hahahahaha!!!

Wow thats just changed things for me 👍

Great visual!!!

Makes sense. Cool optics.

Very nice video - thanks!

Cool production.

I used to try to follow that book, but I couldn't get it. Hogan is my favorite golfer of all. That ending of the video where there's three of you hitting and the music is so cool.

If all else fails, read the instructions. Part B) after the diagram is NOT what he said. Everyone please read the book- pages 106-107. It was said in simplistic terms. The diagram in the closing pages of Lessons is explained simply, the shorter the arc, the less time to clear the left hip (short irons). He opened his feet and hips to give them a head start to clear the hips with shorter irons shorter arc. He explained in this situation, accuracy was more important than power. The 5 iron was the tipping point one way or the other. Stance at shoulder width, square- right foot not restricting a full backswing, thus the arc was just long enough that there would be enough time to clear the hips. For longer irons through the driver, he pulled his right foot back to help make the fullest backswing with the upper body pulling the hips with minimal restriction- the hips indeed were already setup fractionally turned back . Due to the longer arc, there was more time to rotate through and clear the hips- taking advantage of increased power longer irons and woods required, without giving up the woeful “head start” he created by pushing his right foot forward (thus starting the hip turn back by the hips being partially turned back away from the target before the swing began). Please note his live swings, his upper body was lined where he wanted to start it regardless of the lower body being open or closed. It’s in the book. Let’s not manipulate what Mr. Hogan painstakingly described by not truly and accurately explaining what he was saying and manipulating what he so freely gave to us to fit a personal narrative. This is in fact, why he never told all the other things he felt were either fundamental or otherwise useful- because he knew they’d be misunderstood. This I know for a fact through my mentor, Larry Nelson, who spent a great deal of time with Mr. Hogan at Shady Oaks and was told many things never written- for which some have been graciously passed on to me from Mr. Hogan to Larry or Lee Trevino, whom Mr. Hogan also spent a lot of time with and was close with Larry as well. My swing lineage is quite direct to Mr. Hogan himself with small degrees of separation. For the same reason, I will go to my grave not telling what I know Mr. Hogan had to say I inherited. It will be misused as it it is here because he couldn’t or wouldn’t fully explain it to the masses so it would be misunderstood, thus be harmful. Mr. Hogan did have his “secrets”, they will remain so for the 99.999%. This is fundamental teaching malpractice. This is what Mr. Hogan feared.

Logan’s method always worked best for me. Less thinking involved

This is how I have addressed the ball for years. It seems a very natural and efficient stance series. Unfortunately, I don't get the same results as BH. lol

Fantastic...

I like the example of the ball at the left heel and just adjusting your leg position.

Brilliant !

Ben had the BEST swing ever. Watch & pay particular attention to his right elbow. That's the key.

I started hitting my wedges and 8 and 9 iron using this method and as long as I keep the weight left I hit them dead straight.

Nothing new but refreshingly different presentation.

What I find, now that I'm over 60, is that due to lack of turn over the years, when driving or long irons, I moved my right foot back & closed my stance, maybe 5% closed which helped my contact with the ball as well as gaining distance.

Best golf book ever written

The arm hang drill helps with how close to the ball to stand. But definitely play a closed stance with driver

Great

Very interesting Luther. The shoulders are always aligned with the feet, correct? Then was he putting cut spin on the wedge?

Cool

(First thought) . Your video is a great history lesson. ( Second thought). As you know these men were swinging Hickory shaft clubs. Todays equipment and teaching professionals dont recommend those multiple stances. I have Tiger's swing photos...they had Mr. Hogan's.

Just remember the clubs they used back then are very different than the ones we use now. Ball position may be different too.

This is the first time I've seen this and this is one of the things l struggle with. To me, it doesn't make sense to move the ball forward or backward because the length of the arms is still the same no matter what the club length is in your hands. Also, the body can be open up a little when we get to the shorter irons and close on longer irons and driver. l am going to do this and thank you.

I know this video is a bit older now but hopefully you get to see my questions. 1. How are the shoulders lined up in relation to the stance taken? For example when addressing the driver the stance is closed. Are the shoulders also supposed to be closed or are they aligned to the target line? Same question for short irons and being open? 2. Depending on the answer of the first question, should the club face at address always point down your target line or be reset once you adjust for your closed or open stance for any club that doesn’t require a square stance? Thank you.

Thanks 😊

Nice video! Although the triple framed shot didn’t have the closed stance for the driver, camera angle.

20 plus years of this game , and in my opinion from the Bible of golf. I actually understand another level of this book and it's exactly my problem. I've been listening to this book, but not understanding.

If the stance is pointed either right or left where are the shoulders and club face aligned? At the target or at the body alignment? Very confusing.

Love this. I wish I'd seen more instruction on Hogan's stance a long time ago. It would have saved a world of messing around with different swing thoughts etc. Thank you.

I was expecting to see Ben Hogan

thanks

great swing this guy has, i wish he'd play hogan in movies and documentaries, not the usual hackers they use

Your swing is pretty close to Hogan’s. Do you shoot in the sixties often like he did?

Does this mean that Mr. Hogan’s ball flight, based upon this illustrated set up would be a draw for longer clubs, straight for mid length clubs, and fade for shorter clubs?

So am i tight in thinking in theory, the left toes always remains parallel to the target but the right foot adjusts? Thanks for the video

This was Hogan understanding the concept of D plane long before launch monitors.

Watched other videos and Hogan had a closed stance with slightly open hips and shoulders, yet you say he always played with a square stance. Which is it?

It took me a minute to understand how the ball was positioned more to the center when using the different irons but now I get it. It's all about how you either utilize a closed or open stance instead of a square stance for every club. Genius.

Luther can u explain the release of the hands from the top of the swing

You make it very Ben Hogan😅

This all assumes you are using a custom fitted set of clubs.

Foot position should be based on an individual physique and limitations not a book.

It's widely known (apparently by no one here) that the great Hogan did not write this book. Yet you guys act as if this is scripture. Get a life, the golf swing is a lot less complicated than you are making it out to be. Find out what works for you, then do it. That said, good presentation Luther.

if Ray Mears taught golf