Ben Hogan

Hogan was discharged from the hospital two months later, and before the end of the year he was well enough to captain the United States' Ryder Cup team on its trip to Britain. His left shoulder still caused him great pain, and his putting, never his strong suit, was hampered by a partial loss of sight in his left eye caused when the dashboard smashed into his face, but he was determined to make it back into competitive play. In January of 1950, less than a year after the accident, he did, losing the Los Angeles Open to Sam Snead in a playoff. Then he went on to win the U.S. Open that spring. The story of Hogan's comeback was so compelling that in March of 1951 a movie about it, Follow the Sun, was released.

The year 1951 was also a strong one for Hogan. Just weeks after the premiere of Follow the Sun he won his first Masters ever, and later in the season he won the U.S. Open for a second year in a row. 1953, though, was Hogan's best year ever. He won the U.S. Open for a fourth time and the Masters for a second, breaking the former tournament record for the Masters by five shots. He also traveled to Scotland to play in the British Open, the only time he would ever do so, and won.

The fanfare that accompanied Hogan's trip to the British Open in July of 1953 was intense. The Scots, who dubbed him "The Wee Ice Mon" (Hogan stood five-foot-eight and never weighed much over 130 pounds), turned out to give him the largest audience in the history of the Open. A train that ran by the first hole even made an unscheduled stop to watch him tee off for his first qualifying round. The Americans, for their part, gave him a ticker-tape parade on his return to New York City on July 21. "I've got a tough skin, but this kind of brings tears to my eyes," the notoriously composed Hogan said in a speech in New York that afternoon.