Top 50 Ben Hogan Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “The most important shot in golf is the next one.”

— Ben Hogan

2. “If you can’t outplay them, outwork them.”

— Ben Hogan

3. “Your name is the most important thing you own. Don’t ever do anything to disgrace or cheapen it.”

— Ben Hogan

4. “Every day you miss playing or practicing is one day longer it takes to be good.”

— Ben Hogan

5. “Every day that you don’t practice is one day longer before you achieve greatness.”

— Ben Hogan

6. “As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round.”

— Ben Hogan

7. “The greatest pleasure is obtained by improving.”

— Ben Hogan

8. “Good golf begins with a good grip.”

— Ben Hogan

9. “There are no shortcuts in the quest for perfection.”

— Ben Hogan

10. “The ultimate judge of your swing is the flight of the ball.”

— Ben Hogan

11. “I always outworked everybody. Work never bothered me as it bothers some people.”

— Ben Hogan

12. “You only hit a straight ball by accident. The ball is going to move right or left every time you hit it, so you had better make it go one way or the other.”

— Ben Hogan

13. “A shot that goes in the cup is pure luck, but a shot to within two feet of the flag is skill.”

— Ben Hogan

14. “There is no similarity between golf and putting; they are two different games, one played in the air, and the other on the ground.”

— Ben Hogan

15. “The average golfer’s problem is not so much the lack of ability as it is lack of knowledge about what he should be doing.”

— Ben Hogan

16. “Golf is not a game of good shots. It’s a game of bad shots.”

— Ben Hogan

17. “May thy ball lie in green pastures, and not in still waters.”

— Ben Hogan

18. “The only thing a golfer needs is more daylight.”

— Ben Hogan

19. “A well hit golf shot is a feeling that goes up the shaft, right through your hands and into your heart.”

— Ben Hogan

20. “I don’t believe there is anything like a natural golf swing. A golf swing is an unnatural thing, and it has to be developed.”

— Ben Hogan

21. “People have always been telling me what I can’t do. I guess I have wanted to show them. That’s been one of my driving forces all my life.”

— Ben Hogan

22. “I have found the game to be, in all factualness, a universal language wherever I traveled at home or abroad.”

— Ben Hogan

23. “I dreamed one night that I had 17 holes-in-one and one two, and when I woke up I was so goddam mad.”

— Ben Hogan

24. “Golf was my life. I didn’t want to give it up. So I went to work!”

— Ben Hogan

25. “This is a game of misses. The guy who misses the best is going to win.”

— Ben Hogan

26. “Reverse every natural instinct and do the opposite of what you are inclined to do, and you will probably come very close to having a perfect golf swing.”

— Ben Hogan

27. “I never played a round when I didn’t learn something new about the game.”

— Ben Hogan

28. “I could not wait for the sun to come up the next morning so that I could get out on the course again.”

— Ben Hogan

29. “You hear stories about me beating my brains out practising, but the truth is, I was enjoying myself. I couldn’t wait to get up in the morning, so I could hit balls. When I’m hitting the ball where I want, hard and crisply, it’s a joy that very few people experience.”

— Ben Hogan

30. “When I practiced, I practiced to get it right.”

— Ben Hogan

31. “Relax? How can anybody relax and play golf? You have to grip the club, don’t you?”

— Ben Hogan

32. “Golf is 20 percent talent and 80 percent management.”

— Ben Hogan

33. “I don’t like the glamour. I just like the game.”

— Ben Hogan

34. “I hate a hook. It nauseates me. I could vomit when I see one. It’s like a rattlesnake in your pocket.”

— Ben Hogan

35. “If a man can shoot 10 birdies, there’s no reason why he can’t shoot 18. Why can’t you birdie every hole on the course?”

— Ben Hogan

36. “Placing the ball in the right position for the next shot is eighty percent of winning golf.”

— Ben Hogan

37. “If we could have just screwed another head on his shoulders, he would have been the greatest golfer who ever lived.”

— Ben Hogan

38. “All other things being equal, greens break to the west.”

— Ben Hogan

39. “I play golf with friends sometimes, but there are never friendly games.”

— Ben Hogan

40. “I see no reason that a golf course cannot be played in 18 birdies. Just because no one has ever done that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”

— Ben Hogan

41. “I’m glad I brought this course, this monster, to its knees.”

— Ben Hogan

42. “Selecting a stroke is like selecting a wife. To each his own.”

— Ben Hogan

43. “You never fight your eye when you look at a hole. If it looks one way, play it that way. Don’t make a big deal out of an easy shot.”

— Ben Hogan

44. “If the Masters offered no money at all, I would be here trying just as hard.”

— Ben Hogan

45. “Like most professional golfers, I have a tendency to remember my poor shots a shade more vividly than the good ones.”

— Ben Hogan

46. “I have always felt and said that a man who can be a champion in one era could be a champion in any other era because he has what it takes to reach the top.”

— Ben Hogan

47. “I liked to win, but more than anything, I loved to play the way I wanted to play.”

— Ben Hogan

48. “Up to a considerable point, as I see it, there’s nothing difficult about golf, nothing. I see no reason, truly, why the average golfer, if he goes about it intelligently, shouldn’t play in the 70s.”

— Ben Hogan

49. “When a golfer has completed his left-hand grip, the V formed by the thumb and forefinger should point to his right eye.”

— Ben Hogan

50. “Shoot a lower score than everybody else.”

— Ben Hogan