Hogan blasts out of a sand trap on the ninth green during the second round. He fired a five-under-par 66 to take a four-stroke lead at the half-way mark. Two rounds of 72 over the weekend were good enough for a three-shot win over Tony Penna.
1947 L.A. Open
Janis Paige, film actress and queen of the tournament presents trophies to the low amateur Bud Ward (left) and champion Ben Hogan, who won with a score of 280. It was one of Hogan's seven wins in 1947, which seems like a lot until you stack that up against the 24 combined tournaments he won in 1946 and 1948.
1948 L.A. Open
Hogan wins the tournament for a third time and for a second year in a row by firing a 72-hole total of 275. He tops rival Lloyd Mangrum by four shots.
1948 U.S. Open
After winning the L.A. Open to start the year in January, Hogan returned in June for the sport's national championship. Here, he thrills the gallery with a 30-foot putt and posts a 67 to tie Lew Worsham for the first-round lead.
1948 U.S. Open
Actor Adolphe Menjou ("A Star Is Born") congratulates Hogan on his strong start. Hogan became the first golfer in U.S. Open history to post three rounds in the 60s, and his final score of 276 broke the tournament-record by five shots and stood until Jack Nicklaus' 275 at Baltusrol in 1967. It would also wind up being Hogan's first of a record-tying four career U.S. Open titles.
1950 L.A. Open
Many were surprised when Hogan even signed up for this event less than a year after his near-fatal 1949 automobile accident. However, as he would go onto show, he wasn't just in the field to make an appearance. Here, a crowd gathers to watch him warm up before play starts.
1950 L.A. Open
Hogan waits to play an approach shot from the fairway. After his comeback gets off to a shaky start with a 73 in the first round, he responds with three-straight 69s.
1950 L.A. Open
After Sam Snead (right) birdies 17 and 18 in the final round to get into a playoff, heavy rain forces the extra round to be postponed for more than a week. The break causes an even bigger build up, prompting some papers to dub the 18-hole showdown between Hogan and Snead the "Golf Match of the Century."
1950 L.A. Open
After a 10-day layoff, Snead and Hogan shake hands in front of Riviera's clubhouse before the start of their much-anticipated playoff. Snead's 72 robs a weary Hogan of what would truly have been a fitting Hollywood ending. That would come a few months later, though, when Hogan pulled off perhaps the most famous win in golf history at the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion.
