Ben Hogan Golf Co. shutting down? (Now with a Manzella BLOG)

[Matt 4-L]

Looks like Callaway is stopping any new production of the Ben Hogan golf line and all of their clubs are being sold dirt cheap on ebay. I called and talked to a customer rep from Callaway and they are not making any new clubs and are closing them up.

Most likely Callaway bought out topflite for their ball patents and just got the Hogan company because topflite owned them at the time. I would love to see somebody buy the Hogan line and manufacture good quality irons back in Fort Worth again. I have been a loyal Hogan customer since my first real set of golf clubs were the apex pc, what a great club. I still havent hit a club that had the feel of my old pc's. I played them so long that I wore the faces off them, they are actually a goldish color now and the grooves are shot. I broke down a few years back and bought the Hogan FTX's combo they put out, they are cavity back on the long irons but still the muscle back design on the short irons. They are alright but I really don't like the cavity backs, they just don't feel right to me, plus they jacked their lofts up and mess my wedges up (to big of a gap between them).

I have been playing the milled face carnoustie wedges and like those, I bought 3 lobs and 2 sw for back ups for $25 apiece new, I also just bought 2 sets of the '98-02 apex blade (the ones made in FW, not China), one to play now and one for down the road for $250 a set. I have my Hogans for the next 10 years, if your a Hogan club fan, better buy them now I have a feeling they might not be around in a couple of years and they are going cheap right now.

 

[tongzilla]

Let's face it, unless you're a Ben Hogan fan you would not be getting Ben Hogan clubs these days because they are pretty crap.

 

[Matt 4-L]

Agree, the FTX's are no better than a set of Nikes....The older set of apexs '98-'02 are a decent club, I have hit them and liked them, but they still are not Hogans of old. They are a nice clean look I just cant stand the look of these gaudy looking things companies put out.

I started working in a golf shop in the late '80s and learned a lot, you can't buy a game and in irons it comes down to what looks and feels good. Don't buy clubs that cater to swing faults spend the money on lessons. Drivers, now thats a whole different story.

 

[jimmyt]

Matt F,

If you are in love with the Hogan line, but unfortuneately can't get them anymore, you may want to take a look at the Mizuno line of irons. I thought the older Hogan clubs were superior until I tried the Mizuno line.

Give em a try, they are like butter.

 

[Matt 4-L]

I do like the mizunos they make a nice clean blade. I just hate to see a high quality American co. go out. I know I am in the minorty and high quality American products are not a viable option, everything has to be routed through China. Ben Hogan was a perfectionist and he passed that quality down to his irons but thats all gone now, its just sad to see.

 

[jenhaoyen]

I do like the mizunos they make a nice clean blade. I just hate to see a high quality American co. go out. I know I am in the minorty and high quality American products are not a viable option, everything has to be routed through China. Ben Hogan was a perfectionist and he passed that quality down to his irons but thats all gone now, its just sad to see.

that's like sayin Ford goes out of business because they sell high quality cars.

 

[Matt 4-L]

I worked in a golf shop for 15 years I know a little bit about who produces quality and who produced garbage. Two companies come to mind whos clubs never came back for repairs, Hogan and Ping! The China garbage was just that garbage!

I have seen all the advertising hype of why club A is better than club B. They make their money from selling lots of clubs. Do you really think last years model is that much better than this years model? How many people buy a high quality set and play them for 10 years or more? That’s the market Hogan catered too, they didn't add flanges, bubbles, elastomer, Ti faces, super oversize iron heads (CG 1800's), ect. trying to market the club that’s going to make you into a scratch golfer. Our clientele at the golf shop was the same people year after year trying to buy a game, that’s what I am talking about. Hogan was about a high quality club for the good player not something that was a magic wand.

 

[birdie_man]

Someone will pick it up.

The Hogan name has a lot of pedigree and "pop" Hogan instruction seems as popular as ever.

MacGregor has made a comeback by getting back to their roots of making fine equipment and people seem to appreciate that.

Anyone who has hit Muirfield Customs or VIP 67s knows what the deal is. I still would like a set of each. And some old Hogans and maybe Wilsons. (were they called Fluid Feel?)

The newer Apex blades I also thought are nice.

 

[rbaumgolf]

I still have a few sets of Hogan radials (circa 1986) in my garage stash.........nice sweet club

 

[dbl]

Maybe a Hogan swing prophet could buy the company and market swing theory AND clubs.

 

[Dariusz J.]

If I am a millionaire, I'd buy the company. Practically, this is the only one brand name I'd be willing to buy.

Cheers

 

[thefuture37]

If I am a millionaire, I'd buy the company. Practically, this is the only one brand name I'd be willing to buy.

Cheers

What a surprise!!!!

Don't know why people even care about this story. Hogan Co hasn't made good clubs since Hogan passed. Nobody on this forum would be caught dead with one of the recent Hogan drivers in their bag. Its just a name. Nicklaus brand clubs are a bigger joke.

 

[2mongoose]

It is kinda sad. And just another reason I really don't like Callaway. Hopefully someone does pick it up. You don't even need to "build" the brand, just needs a little touch up!

 

[mjstrong]

Difference of opinion.

I played three sets of Hogan's in a row. My first new set were the GCD Tour's, I then made a combo set of Apex Blades and Apex Pro's, and then played the FTX set. I love my FTX's, not sure why everyone seems to be down on them. They were a forged, progressive set, and I loved the feedback on them. I think it's sad to see the company go.

 

[tourdeep]

I played three sets of Hogan's in a row. My first new set were the GCD Tour's, I then made a combo set of Apex Blades and Apex Pro's, and then played the FTX set. I love my FTX's, not sure why everyone seems to be down on them. They were a forged, progressive set, and I loved the feedback on them. I think it's sad to see the company go.

Still playing the Pro's myself and the tour deep ball. Not everyone is down on them, more like forgotten since someone turned off the marketing machine. The equipment is a matter of preference, marketing machine makes it personal and then tuning the club to the swing makes the ball leaving the clubface feeling like butter...

Spoke to a callaway rep a couple years ago. The target market isn't there. We're basically old fart traditionalists and the Callaway name has a larger brand to mass market to a more diverse audience. There was talk about maintaining the blades for custom fitting, and appears that will not happen. The Ben hogan site "products" link defaults to the Callaway used clubs.

I will miss playing the Tour deep ball. It was always unique. Not once have I run into another player who played the tourdeep ball, the dull color was easy to pick out from other balls, and good feel around and on the greens.

 

[thefuture37]

Still playing the Pro's myself and the tour deep ball. Not everyone is down on them, more like forgotten since someone turned off the marketing machine. The equipment is a matter of preference, marketing machine makes it personal and then tuning the club to the swing makes the ball leaving the clubface feeling like butter...

Spoke to a callaway rep a couple years ago. The target market isn't there. We're basically old fart traditionalists and the Callaway name has a larger brand to mass market to a more diverse audience. There was talk about maintaining the blades for custom fitting, and appears that will not happen. The Ben hogan site "products" link defaults to the Callaway used clubs.

I will miss playing the Tour deep ball. It was always unique. Not once have I run into another player who played the tourdeep ball, the dull color was easy to pick out from other balls, and good feel around and on the greens.

the tour deep ball has consistently been shown to be a very short ball compared to others in its class. and its not that the longer balls are spinning less around the greens either. the hogan ball just doesn't go as far. probably just another sign that in the recent past the hogan company has been lagging in the R&D department also.

 

[tourdeep]

the tour deep ball has consistently been shown to be a very short ball compared to others in its class.

not true relative to the articles i saw. If I can find the article I will post. Distance wise it was not very short to the competition. Might have been a few yards...

Did a litttle test with v1's, hx, v1x, TD. Tried my best to be very unbiased and teed them up in play conditions swapping balls on different tees boxes, hitting multiple balls, etc... All the balls did well distance wise. I was satisfied with any of the balls off the tee.

As much as I want to stick with the TD ball, giving up severe distance is just not an option. On and around the greens, one of the best in its class. Its composition is similar to the HX tour 56(?), the six big dimple pattern. The big strike against it, along with the prov's and such, is price...

 

[mb6606]

To much competition in a shrinking market - bound to be some casualties. I am sure somewhere down the road the Hogan name will be back ala Bobby Jones.

 

[Brian Manzella]

BLOG: The Ben Hogan Experience.

One of my junior golfers who grew up to be a Golf Pro is Brent White.

Brent was a very good high school player who once shot 29 in a match. He would have developed into a good college player, but developing players like Brent in college is way over the heads of today's college golf programs.

Brent left New Orleans to attend TCU and got a job in the bag room at Shady Oaks Country Club, the club Ben Hogan was a member of in Fort Worth Texas.

Brent worked his way up from that bag room, all the way to the Head Professional job. Along the way he got to know Mr. Hogan very well, and has tons of great Hogan stories.

Here is the "Cliff's notes" version of the real Ben Hogan according to Brent:

Hogan was a very nice man, very generous to those is need, had a wry sense of humor, loved giving lessons to Kris Tschetter, enjoyed a good drink, adored long-time pro and later GM Mike Wright, was a total gentleman and had a lot of class.

In 2000, as always, I was looking for a good equipment staff deal. Brent had the greatest deal ever with the Hogan Company, and got me a small club and bag deal.

In those days, I was playing with single-frequency, matched MOI golf clubs. I wanted a set of Hogan blades that were assembled this way.

So I concocted a way to do it. I got a set of Swing-Sync blades, "on my number," and disassembled them. I weighed the heads and headed off to Fort Worth with the shafts.

I'll never forget my day at the Hogan Company. I was treated like mini-royalty. The assembly line had folks working that were with the company as long as I had been on this earth. They were very nice, and I got to hand pick my heads, and go to see Hogan's Tour department guys.

These two fellows built Mr. Hogan's clubs, and I told them what I was trying to do. They had never done it before, but were willing to try. They took me on a tour of the plant, saw Mr. Hogan's office, where I got to fondle his clubs, and marvel at the putter Mr. Hogan was experimenting with. It looked liked a space ship.

I played Shady Oaks the next day with Brent, attended a Texas Ranger's game in the front row, was on SportsCenter that night watching Ichiro, and returned to Louisville.

Alas, the clubs wound up on the wrong frequency, but I was able to get an even better set eventually that came out perfect.

The Hogan clubs were still great clubs at this point, and the stock Apex shafts were actually Precision FM's. They were assembled as a set, something almost no company did because of cost, and were as good as any before Callaway ruined the brand.

Brent has become a Bank executive, and now a member at Shady Oaks, and now Callaway has stopped making the Hogan clubs.

Here's what someone should do with the Hogan brand...

Have Muira or Endo make a very high end version of Hogan Apex blades and wedges.

They should be an easier to hit lower center-of-gravity in the longer irons, and a true blade from the 6-iron down.

They should be a custom fit club only, with a screw-in system similar to a HG or PING's new cart. All of the best shafts should be available, and they should be at selected places only. Like Edel putters.

It should not have anything to do with Ben Hogan's technique or any of the goofy so-called gurus, that so-called teach Hogan's so-called swing.

It should be an experience.

The Hogan Experience.

 

[tongzilla]

as usual, good insights, good points...good post.