VIDEO CLIP: ‘Follow the Sun: The Ben Hogan Story’

IT’S COLONIAL WEEK ON THE PGA TOUR, so it’s only fitting to pay homage to Ben Hogan, a nine-time major winner who lived to dig golf balls out of the dirt. Hogan was a mythic figure who survived a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus on a foggy Texas highway and 16 months later limped through 72 holes and an 18-hole playoff against Lloyd Mangrum and George Fazio to win the 1950 U.S. Open.

Hollywood noticed the miracle comeback and public adulation, and made the first feature film about a golfer, starring Glenn Ford as Hogan and Anne Baxter as Hogan’s wife, Valerie. Hogan was a technical adviser on the film and “drove everybody nearly mad” said his longtime golf partner Jimmy Demaret. He had good reason—Ford wasn’t much of a golfer. “Follow the Sun” came out in 1951 and received mostly favorable reviews.

Enjoy the short clip, in which Valerie cheerfully says, “Hit ‘em far and straight, dear.”

The real-life Hogan did that. Did he ever.