From Publishers Weekly
Despite legendary golfer Ben Hogan's reported gruffness, reluctance to give interviews and inability to make polite small talk, people liked him. Especially first-time author Vasquez, who, at the age of 17, got a job shagging practice balls at Shady Oaks Country Club in Fort Worth, Tex., for the four-time U.S. Open champion, whom many still consider the greatest golfer in history. This slender volume, penned 36 years later, contains enlightening personal anecdotes and astounding golf tips that will thrill any enthusiast, including the secret to Hogan's legendary golf swing (hint" it's in the stance). "The Secret" was not revealed in Hogan's enormously popular book Five Lessons, or, apparently, to any other person than Vasquez before or since Hogan's death in 1997 (with once exception: Vasquez secretly shared it with golfer Nick Faldo in 1989), but it is revealed to all here with the blessing of Hogan's widow, Valerie. Outstanding chapters include the meeting between Faldo and Hogan, with the latter intimidating the "out-of-town guy," and a poignant explanation of why Hogan was such a bad putter later in life. Hogan was "[d]riven to excellence, focused on winning, relentlessly hardworking, bent on improving, intensely competitive, intimidating and aloof to opponents, analytical, consumed by detail and equally dependent on skill and power." He was also quietly generous, intensely loyal and brimming with personal integrity. Vasquez's unique position and 20-year relationship with the champion allowed him access to all of Ben Hogan. In an easygoing, conversational writing style, the stories Vasquez relates here are the rich fruits of that relationship and should not be missed. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
The notoriously tight-lipped Ben Hogan said two things that have intrigued golfers for more than 50 years. One was that he'd discovered the secret of the golf swing; the other was that, to find it yourself, you'd have to dig it out of the dirt. You can stop digging. As a teenager in the 1960s, Vasquez shagged balls for Hogan at a Fort Worth country club; Hogan didn't talk much, but Vasquez now reveals that his boss did tell him the secret (turn your right knee in at address, and cup your left wrist at the top of the backswing). It worked for Hogan, but it sounds like just another confusing tip to the rest of us (better keep digging). If the secret proves less than earth-shattering, though, the rare personal view that Vasquez provides of the foreboding Hogan makes this little memoir something special. Swinging a golf club may be a small thing, but Vasquez shows us how, for one determined man, it led to a lifelong search for a kind of mind-body perfection. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Dan Jenkins, friend of Ben Hogan and author of Dead Solid Perfect
Much more interesting than anything written by people who didnít know Ben. Excuse me, ëMr. Hogan.í

Book Description
Ben Hogan’s former ball shagger recounts firsthand stories of the golf legend—and reveals, for the first time, Hogan’s Swing Secret, a source of mystery to golfers for more than fifty years. Ben Hogan’s pro-golf record is legendary. A four-time PGA Player of the Year, he celebrated sixty-three tournament wins and became known as a man of few words and fewer close friends. Most of what we know about Hogan has been based on myth and speculation. Until now. In the 1960’s, though Hogan’s competitive career was over, he kept the practice habits that had made him famous and remade modern competitive golf. He hired fifteen-year-old Jody Vasquez to help. Each day, after driving to a remote part of the course at the Shady Oaks Country Club, Hogan would spend hours hitting balls, and Vasquez would retrieve them. There, and over the course of their twenty-year friendship, Hogan taught Jody the mechanics of his famous swing and shared his thoughts on playing, practicing, and course management—unknowingly revealing much about his character, values, and beliefs, and the events that shaped them. In Afternoons with Mr. Hogan, Jody Vasquez shares dozens of stories about Hogan, from the way he practiced, selected his clubs, and interacted with other star players to his little-known humor and generosity. Combining the gentle insight of Tom Kite’s A Fairway to Heaven (which recalls Kite’s golf education under Harvey Penick) with the sage perspective of Penick’s own Little Red Book, Vasquez’s tribute is funny, poignant, and full of advice for golfers of all levels.

About the Author
Jody Vasquez shagged balls for Ben Hogan for four years at the Shady Oaks Country Club in the 1960s. Vasquez is now a member of the Colonial Country Club, where he serves on the board of governors for the annual Colonial, the longest-running site on the PGA Tour and the tournament Hogan won five times.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Ben Hogan's pro golf record is legendary. A four-time PGA Player of the Year, he celebrated sixty-three tournament wins and became known as a man of few words and fewer close friends. Most of what we know about Hogan has been based on myth and speculation. Until now. In the 1960s, though Hogan's competitive career was over, he kept the practice habits that made him famous and remade modern competitive golf. He hired seventeen-year-old Jody Vasquez to help. Each day, after driving to a remote part of the course at the Shady Oaks Country Club, Hogan would spend hours hitting balls, and Vasquez would retrieve them. There, and over the course of their twenty-year friendship, Hogan taught Jody the mechanics of his famous swing and shared his thoughts on playing, practicing, and course management -- unknowingly revealing much about his character, values, and beliefs, and the events that shaped them. In Afternoons with Mr. Hogan, Jody Vasquez shares dozens of stories about Hogan, from the way he practiced, selected his clubs, and interacted with other star players to his little-known humor and generosity. Combining the gentle insight of Tom Kite's A Fairway to Heaven (which recalls Kite's golf education under Harvey Penick) with the sage perspective of Penick's own Little Red Book, Vasquez's tribute is funny, poignant, and full of advice for golfers of all levels.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Despite legendary golfer Ben Hogan's reported gruffness, reluctance to give interviews and inability to make polite small talk, people liked him. Especially first-time author Vasquez, who, at the age of 17, got a job shagging practice balls at Shady Oaks Country Club in Fort Worth, Tex., for the four-time U.S. Open champion, whom many still consider the greatest golfer in history. This slender volume, penned 36 years later, contains enlightening personal anecdotes and astounding golf tips that will thrill any enthusiast, including the secret to Hogan's legendary golf swing (hint" it's in the stance). "The Secret" was not revealed in Hogan's enormously popular book Five Lessons, or, apparently, to any other person than Vasquez before or since Hogan's death in 1997 (with once excetion: Vasquez secretly shared it with golfer Nick Faldo in 1989), but it is revealed to all here with the blessing of Hogan's widow, Valerie. Outstanding chapters include the meeting between Faldo and Hogan, with the latter intimidating the "out-of-town guy," and a poignant explanation of why Hogan was such a bad putter later in life. Hogan was "[d]riven to excellence, focused on winning, relentlessly hardworking, bent on improving, intensely competitive, intimidating and aloof to opponents, analytical, consumed by detail and equally dependent on skill and power." He was also quietly generous, intensely loyal and brimming with personal integrity. Vasquez's unique position and 20-year relationship with the champion allowed him access to all of Ben Hogan. In an easygoing, conversational writing style, the stories Vasquez relates here are the rich fruits of that relationship and should not be missed. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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