2022 Masters

[houtiger]

I love the traditions of the Masters, and in particular how they honor the honorary starters!

 

[COTiger]

Tiger with an opening round 71.  Wayward tee shots caused him a couple of shots.

[houtiger]

71 is very good, for first tournament back after 17 months.  Tiger could have died, or lost his leg.  He was in bed for 3 months after the accident.  He said his prep routine is two hours before a round, and two hours after to keep the swelling down in his leg.  He does the ice baths after, said he spends a lot of time shivering.

Now for a bit on the Ben Hogan story, how he recovered from a serious car crash with a Greyhound Bus in Feb. 1949, and won the 1950 US Open!

 

Quote

 

Initially, doctors weren’t certain Hogan would survive, and if he did, they couldn’t be sure he’d ever walk again. Returning to top-tier competitive golf seemed like an impossibility for the 1948 “Golfer of the Year,” the first man since Gene Sarazen in 1922 to win the national open and PGA Championship in the same year.

 

He spent 59 days in an El Paso hospital, but a month into his stay, Hogan took a turn for the worse when blood clots began to form in his left leg and one broke off and invaded his right lung. Despite his doctors’ best efforts, more clots formed, and Hogan’s condition became grave.

 

A specialist from Tulane University in New Orleans, Dr. Alton Ochsner, was brought in, and he didn’t waste time. During a two-hour procedure, the vascular surgeon tied off the vena cava, the main vein that delivers blood from the lower extremities to the heart. Because of that, Hogan would endure severe pain and circulatory problems in his legs the rest of his life. He wrapped them in ace bandages every day, and he soaked them in hot water and Epsom salt after every round. Just as Tiger had said.

 

Though he didn’t have the benefit of the medical advances available today to Woods, Hogan was only 36 years old at the time, physically fit and without a history of injuries. Woods is 45, only months removed from his fifth back surgery and has undergone numerous surgeries on his right knee, the leg most severely damaged in the rollover crash.

 

Hogan arrived home on April 1, and as ambulance attendants carried him to the front door of his home, Valerie said, “I want you to see the redbuds in the yard. See them?”

 

“I see them. They’re wonderful,” he replied, smiling. “It’s great to be back.”

 

In May, Hogan was back on a golf course, but only as a spectator at Dallas Athletic Club, where he watched Byron Nelson and other friends in the Texas PGA. He told reporters he was able to walk about three holes and feared that of all the injuries, his broken collarbone was the most worrisome. “It wasn’t broken in a place where it can grow back easily,” he said. “I wonder if it will ever permit me to swing a golf club right again.”

It wasn’t until Saturday, Dec. 10 that Hogan was able to play his first 18 holes, touring Colonial Country Club with head pro Raymond Gafford. He did not reveal a score, but said only, “I didn’t hit them very well.”

 

Which made the events one month later truly astonishing. Returning to competitive golf at the Los Angeles Open at friendly Riviera Country Club, where he had won the U.S. Open (and where, coincidentally, Woods now hosts a PGA Tour event that ended two day before his accident), Hogan somehow played well enough to take the lead thanks to a final-round 69. But Sam Snead birdied his final two holes for a five-under 66 to tie Hogan at four-under 280.

 

His legs aching and weak, Hogan rued the thought of an 18-hole playoff, but he got a reprieve when heavy rains, which already had pushed the tournament into Tuesday, forced further postponement of the playoff by a week, to the following Wednesday. It didn’t matter. Snead emerged with the victory, shooting 72 to Hogan’s 76 and ruining a fairytale ending. But Hogan would go on to author a more incredible story a few months later by defeating Lloyd Mangrum and George Fazio in an 18-hole playoff to win the U.S. Open at Merion.

 

  The “mechanical man,” as he was known in the press, was just 16 months removed from the accident, and he would add five more majors: two Masters, two more U.S. Open titles and the 1953 British Open at Carnoustie that completed his triple-crown season. He arrived home to a ticker-tape parade.

 

Because of his chronic leg problems, Hogan competed only sporadically after the accident. Thus, only 11 of his 64 career titles came after 1949, the last, fittingly, at the 1959 Colonial National Invitation in Fort Worth. Though still a phenomenal player, Hogan lamented that his game, “was not as good as before. I was better in 1948 and 1949 than I ever was.”

 

 

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by houtiger

[COTiger]

Tiger shot a 78 today with 3 3 putts & a 4 putt.

[LSUDad]

On 4/8/2022 at 10:08 AM, houtiger said:

71 is very good, for first tournament back after 17 months.  Tiger could have died, or lost his leg.  He was in bed for 3 months after the accident.  He said his prep routine is two hours before a round, and two hours after to keep the swelling down in his leg.  He does the ice baths after, said he spends a lot of time shivering.

Now for a bit on the Ben Hogan story, how he recovered from a serious car crash with a Greyhound Bus in Feb. 1949, and won the 1950 US Open!

 

 

 

I’ve posted that story before, a good one.

Years ago, over 50 of them. My baby sister was 5 years old, Dr John Ochsner operated on her to close a hole in her heart. My sister turns 60 this year! 
 

 

 

[COTiger]

Scotty Scheffler is on fire.  Four wins in his last six starts including his first of what should be several green jackets.

[COTiger]

And he's won 10 million dollars.