Behind the Scenes at the New Ben Hogan Golf

At the Demo Day at the 2015 PGA Merchandise Show, the buzz around the relaunched Ben Hogan brand was unmistakable.  The #1 Must-Do for virtually every golfer there was trying the new irons and wedges, and no one left the booth disappointed.  After trying the irons myself, I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Terry Koehler, the President of Ben Hogan Golf, to learn more about the “new” company.  From the focus on the green grass club pro to the individually lofted clubs, it was a unique story, indeed.  Now, after having reviewed both the Ft. Worth 15 irons and the TK 15 wedges, I’m privileged to share my most recent conversation with Mr. Koehler with you.

PluggedInGolf: How did the opportunity to re-launch the Hogan brand come about?  What made you decide to do it?

Terry Koehler: As you know, I’ve had Ben Hogan in my life and my blood since childhood.  When I saw that the Ben Hogan brand had been purchased from Callaway by Perry Ellis, I wondered if there would be an opportunity to resurrect that great name in the golf equipment business.  My inquiry call was met with interest and the process moved along rather smoothly.  What made me decide to do it is that I felt the golf equipment industry needed this brand, and the way Ben Hogan always did things.  And Mr. Hogan’s legacy for precision, quality and integrity needed it as well.  He build a lasting legacy with his game, and continued that with his company.  Great things like that need to live on forever, and we had a team coming together that understands that great opportunity and responsibility.

PIG: You’re doing things a little differently with Hogan.  Please tell me about your philosophy with the new Hogan brand.

TK: It’s really quite simple.  Do things as Mr. Hogan would have done them.  That means always focus on the product, not the marketing.  Precision, quality, high-integrity business practices – these were always the building blocks of the Ben Hogan Company.  A commitment to golfers to give them the best we can.  And to their golf professionals to always be their “partner”.  Those values drive everything we do.

PIG: Why sell the new Hogans in individual lofts?  I’m sure plenty of golfers would have been happy with a new “normal” set of irons from the Ben Hogan company.

TK: Because what you call “normal” isn’t functional any longer.  When Mr. Hogan played the game at the highest level, a set of irons had even 4* gaps from the longest to shortest iron.  That helped him have the precision he needed.  But this mad race to give golfers “distance” has pushed irons lofts lower and lower – most modern “6-irons” have less loft than Mr. Hogan’s 4-iron.  That’s “normal”?  Every modern set of irons has the clubs compressed at the long end to a point where there are only a few yards between clubs, and the lofts are expanded at the high lofts, so you have less distance control and precision in prime scoring range.  In was our opinion that this is a huge problem that needed a bold solution.

By making irons in every loft from 20 to 47 degrees – and wedges from 48 to 63 – we can build any golfer the precise set of clubs to optimize their accuracy throughout the set.  And for the first time in golf, we can fit irons to a golfer’s specific launch profile throughout the set.  It works. Better.

PIG: What’s been the biggest challenge in re-launching Ben Hogan Golf?

TK: The ‘T’s – team and time.  We are building a great team of people who are dedicated to this mission to build a better golf club company.  We have over 150 years of experience from working for Mr. Hogan himself.  We have second generation Ben Hogan employees, which is pretty cool.  But all this takes time.   The Ben Hogan name is a historic fixture in the industry, but our new company has many challenges of a start-up – systems, procedures, people.  It takes time to get it right, but we are pleased with our progress.

PIG: What’s been the greatest success or the most rewarding experience so far?

TK: Just being able to do this for Mr. Hogan’s legacy is rewarding, of course.  But the payoff is the emails, calls and social posts we get every day that tell us we are doing it right.  Our owners are loving our clubs.  Our trade accounts are loving the way we do business.  We’ve had a number of comments from people who knew Mr. Hogan who have told us he would be proud.  That really hits home with us.

PIG: How do you plan to compete with the “major” OEMs?

TK: Well, we don’t really see that we “compete” with them.  They compete with each other, and will continue to do so.  What we try to do is identify problems with golf clubs that are caused by their mass-market approach and solve them for golfers.  The FT. Worth 15 irons are the most playable “blade” in the game.  All the accuracy you expect from your best shots, but more forgiveness with your misses than any blade ever.  Our TK 15 wedges simply outperform any others in the market.  Better full swing performance, better greenside performance, and the most thorough custom-fit, custom-build process in the category.  We have some other things cooking that are equally exciting.  I have no doubt that Ben Hogan is the company to watch for some time.

PIG: Will we see these irons on any professional tours in the near future?

TK: For sure.  We have not invested resources yet to go out there and show what we are doing.  But we will when the time is right.  Remember, we have only been shipping the new Ben Hogan products for five months.  We are still trying to keep up.  The product is too good not to be in tour players’ bags, and the performance we deliver will earn tour play.  I’m confident we will be seen on all the tours in 2016.

PIG: What are the first things you expect golfers to notice when playing the new Hogan irons and wedges?

TK: The first thing is the artful beauty of the clubs.  Mr. Hogan said that a golf club should be “like a fine piece of jewelry”, so that drove us.  Clean and simple lines, understated graphics – everything for a reason . . . and marketing sizzle isn’t one of them.  From the first shot, we get a lot of “wow” reactions.  The feel of this quality one-piece forging is different from most.  Again, Mr. Hogan guided us in that quest, saying that a well struck shot is “a feeling that goes up through your hands and right into your heart.”  That has been lost in our business for the most part.  Finally, it only takes a few shots to realize that you are getting a more penetrating ball flight, better trajectory control and the distance precision that comes from those qualities.  Our owner and media reviews are very strong.

PIG: I’m sure you’ve done a lot of testing of your Hogan irons and wedges versus other clubs.  What has it shown?

TK: That modern “game improvement” clubs leave a lot to be desired.  Ball flight in cavity back short irons is very high and inconsistent.   And we have not seen that the claims for added distance in modern designs are due to thin face technologies as much as from the strengthened lofts and increased shaft lengths.  Our innovative approach to weighting, bringing the mass closer to the impact zone, is proving to be “sneaky forgiving”, and just as long as anything out there.

PIG: Looking at my Hogan irons, I can see the “dimple” in the back of the club is deeper in the long irons than the wedges.  Why is that?

TK: Because each iron in the set has its own weighting, designed to optimize its performance.  We’ve gone against the grain that a “matched” set should all look alike.  A 25-degree iron is very different from a 35 or 45.  They need to be different to get the right ball flight and other performance characteristics.  This ‘dimple’, as you call it, allows us to match the weighting to the loft of the club to give you better performance.

PIG: How did you develop the idea that perimeter weighting had gone too far?

TK: Some time back I saw some robot testing that showed a perimeter-weighted iron yielding a surprisingly large shot pattern on dead center hits.  The blade it was being tested against was throwing darts.  That hit me.  Why should I compromise my best shots, only to get a little forgiveness on my not-so-good ones?  But the blade was terribly punishing on toe misses particularly.  Could I fix that without compromising the dead center hits that keep us all coming back?  So I began experimenting with moving mass back toward the center of the face.  I studied decades of Mr. Hogan’s designs and found lots of inspiration there.

I liken modern game improvement clubs to a simple hammer.  It drives nails very well when you have the mass aligned with impact. But turn that hammer on its side, and strike the nail where there is no mass and you get a horrible feel and no efficiency.  These thin face irons are like that hammer on its side.

PIG: Many of our readers love your SCOR clubs, which clearly share some traits with the new TK 15’s.  How are the new Hogan wedges different?

TK: Actually the SCOR concept was inspired by an old Ben Hogan “Special” wedge made in the late 1960s.  That club inspired my approach to moving weight more evenly across the back of wedges to deliver better ball flight and impact consistency.  But out of respect, I could not allow the SCOR wedges to look that much like a classic Hogan.  Now we can.  We improved the weight distribution over the SCORs to deliver better performance at all swing speeds.  The new Hogan TK 15 wedges are a pure forging, whereas SCOR was a form-forged club.  The new Hogans have a slightly larger face profile for confidence, and refined V Sole technology for better turf interaction.$

PIG: How does the V-Sole help golfers?  The bounce numbers on some of the higher lofted clubs is pretty high!

TK: I’m pretty outspoken about this whole notion of “fitting bounce.”  I don’t see how you can fit turf conditions when you don’t know what your next lie will look like.  And I don’t see how you can fit a swing path, when it is constantly changing.  No golfer takes the same divot all the time – not even tour pros.  Either accidentally or on purpose, you put different swings on your wedges to hit different shots. What we did is put two bounce angles on each wedge – a lower bounce in the main portion of the sole to accommodate tight lies and shallow swing paths.  But the leading ¼” or so carries a very high bounce to handle softer lies or steeper swing paths.  We get rave reviews on it from golfers of all skill levels.

Our philosophy is to give you a selection of lofts, each with the perfect sole configuration, so that we can gap your wedges correctly.  Then we will custom-fit your shaft and other specs to make your wedges the most finely tuned clubs in your bag.  It baffles me how many golfers will just accept whatever is on the rack for the most crucial scoring clubs in their bags.

PIG: Thank you, Mr. Koehler, for taking the time to speak with us.

For more information about the new clubs from Ben Hogan Golf, you can read our reviews of the TK 15 Wedges and the Ft. Worth 15 Irons.  To get a free Hogan Fit online, head over to the Ben Hogan Golf website.

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Matt Saternus

Editor In Chief at Plugged In Golf

Matt has worked in nearly every job in the golf industry from club fitting to instruction to writing and speaking.

He founded Plugged In Golf in 2013 with the goal of helping all golfers play better and enjoy the game more.

Matt lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two daughters.

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