The Duel of The Decade

The cover of the January 1962 Golf Magazine differed from the usual covers the magazine featured. Instead of an action shot of a famous PGA pro, the cover was an illustration done by Edward Vebell. The illustration was done in an almost comic book fashion. Ben Hogan and Sam Snead were depicted in a golfer’s version of action heroes facing off against each other. The caption reads, “Duel of the Decade = Hogan vs. Snead” promising a great story on the inside pages.

The article inside, written by Douglas Wood Gibson is about the upcoming season of televised exhibition golf. The article listed the matches to be played in the first full season of what was called This Wonderful World of Golf sponsored by Shell Oil. The name would soon be changed to Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf. The show that was part exhibition golf match, part travelogue and part advertising would grow into one of the most popular of the televised golf matches that were broadcast in the winter months to help golf fans get from the end of one PGA Tour season to the next year’s Masters.

Yet Gibson wrote that the Hogan versus Snead match was “the big card” that was head and shoulders above the Shell matches or any of the other exhibition style matches that were broadcast. He reported that “the arrangement, on the brink of being concluded at this writing, calls for Ben and Sam to play 13 matches exclusively for television.” The program was scheduled to run in either late spring or early fall.

13 matches? Hogan only played in four events in 1961 and would only play in three events in 1962. It’s hard to imagine that he would play 13 matches against Sam Snead. Throw in the fact that the matches would be played on 13 different championship courses, including the four courses where Hogan won U.S. Opens, and the four courses where Sam finished runner-up in the same tournament, and you really would have the match of the decade. Also, one that would require an arduous amount of travel.

The matches previewed in the article for This Wonderful World of Golf took place, and were broadcast, later in 1962, but not another word was heard about the matches between Snead and Hogan. There was never any mention of the matches in the newspapers or wire services in 1962 or 1963. So, what happened?

| Perhaps Corcoran go a little too excited at the prospect of a series of matches conducted all over the globe.

 

Sam Snead’s business manager was Fred Corcoran, who was also a friend of Ben Hogan. Corcoran is quoted widely in the Golf Magazine story. He knew a good opportunity when he saw one and knowing that Hogan’s golf club manufacturing business was struggling and needed promotion, figured he could help get Hogan that promotion as well as a good payday for both Hogan and Snead. Perhaps Corcoran got a little too excited at the prospect of a series of matches conducted all over the globe and got Gibson, the author of the article in Golf Magazine a little too excited, as well.

 

Fred Corcoran

 

The series of matches never materialized, but the groundwork had been laid for what would later become one of the greatest televised matches of all time, at least from a shot making perspective. That match would be forever memorialized in a Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf match that aired in 1965 and was seen by 3.47 million viewers. It was played at the Houston Country Club in June of 1964. How this match came about has all the fingerprints of Fred Corcoran.

 

 

Hogan agreed to play in this match as a favor to Corcoran but demanded a $25,000 appearance fee. Shell did not pay appearance fees to any golfer who played a match on the show, except Hogan. Corcoran was instrumental in securing the appearance fee and helped keep it secret from the viewing public. Every other player who appeared on the show played for only prize money plus expenses.

Snead was still playing competitively on the PGA Tour at the time. His last win was at the 1965 Greater Greensboro Open. Snead just loved to play competitive golf, especially if it was against his rival, Hogan.

Al Barkow was a young writer on the show, his first professional writing job. He would go on to author numerous books and articles and he also was the editor-in-chief of Golf Magazine (1970-1972). He was hired by Shell just two weeks before the Hogan-Snead match and later wrote about it in an article posted online with an August 6, 2015 byline on Golf Magazine. The article provides some great behind-the-scenes glimpses into the two days of filming.

A large crowd was on hand as the two began their match at 9 am on a cloudy day that had heavy rain in the forecast. That rain started falling on the second hole and by the third hole thunderclaps boomed and lightning streaked the sky.

 

| Hogan managed a tight smile and quietly left the room.

 

The course was evacuated and the participants, as well as the filming crew, including Barkow, took refuge in a small room off the pro shop. Hogan sat quietly with a towel draped around his shoulders while Snead regaled the small group with his patented stories that went from bawdy to raunchy to filthy. Two female Shell staffers endured the show while being quite uncomfortable while Hogan managed a tight smile and quietly left the room.

Hogan and Snead in the Augusta Locker Room

 

After the four-hour rain delay the match resumed with the players hitting their second shots on the par 5 third hole. Hogan hit first and smashed his four-wood to inside of 25-feet, an extraordinarily fine shot considering he was sitting around for four hours. The match was able to complete 11 holes before it grew too dark to play. For those 11 holes and, for the final holes played the next day, Hogan striped every shot. He hit every fairway with his tee shots and every green with his approach shots that never finished outside of 25 feet. Even though Hogan preferred to hit a fade, he only employed it a couple of times during the match. He had decided that the Houston Country Club layout called for a draw.

One aspect of Barstow’s job was to relay club selection back to play-by-play announcer George Rodgers and Gene Sarazen, the analysist on the show. On the 12th hole Barkow asked Hogan if he was hitting a wedge. With a barely concealed smile Hogan replied, “Equalizer.” It was what the wedge was named in the Hogan branded iron sets. Barkow relayed this information to the announcers and Rogers passed on to the viewers that Hogan was hitting “an Equalizer” giving Hogan the kind of publicity for his golf club line that he had been looking for when he agreed to the match.

 

“I must have hit it on the right jerk,” Ben Hogan tells Gene Sarazen on Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf

 

Not surprisingly, it was Hogan’s putting that did not live up to the quality of his ball striking. Putting caused Hogan fits late in his career. After standing over a putt on the 12th hole for what seemed like forever, he finally struck the ball and made the longest putt he would make in the match. Going over to talk with Sarazen he said that, “I must of hit it on the right jerk.” His big smile as he said this was an indication of his level of enjoyment.

What he didn’t like about the Shell match was all the standing around between shots while the production crew got the cameras and audio equipment into position. “I’ll never do this again,” he muttered during one wait.

Snead also played well, but on this day, he was no match for Hogan. As Hogan kept hitting fairways and greens, Snead started to play aggressively taking risks in hope of catching up in the match. In the end, Hogan won the stroke play match by three strokes; 69 to Snead’s 72. After the match the two players demonstrated some of their key swing thoughts with Hogan’s transition from the top of the backswing to the downswing is shown in slow motion. Watch the match HERE.

The Duel of the Decade is long remembered as one of the best matches on the long-running Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf.

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