Ben Hogan, a golf legend and nine-time major winner, pioneered modern instruction in 1957 with his book Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf. Nearly 70 years after it was published, the book still sits on the shelves of many of the world's greatest coaches. Golf swings and equipment may have evolved but many of the principles Hogan wrote have not.
At GOLFZON Leadbetter Education, we believe great coaching honors the past and uses the present. Hogan’s teaching influenced our founder, David Leadbetter, who passed many of the same ideas to his global teaching team. Three of Ben Hogan’s central ideas run through every lesson we teach to this day.
The Grip is a Foundation
In his book, Hogan wrote an entire chapter on the grip. He understood that the grip is not one of many fundamentals, but the foundation that enables the rest of a player’s movement and patterns to come in a swing. Without a proper grip at the start, every other fix is a temporary measure.
His emphasis on the left hand, with pressure coming from the last three fingers, as well as the unified feeling of both hands working as one unit is still alive in modern coaching. When teaching the grip in our GLE Level 1 coaching certification course, we teach grip principles that Hogan articulated better than anyone, refined through David's 50+ years of playing and teaching.
The Concept of Plane
Hogan’s image of the pane of glass resting on the shoulders is one of the most famous visuals in golf instruction. The idea it conveys is brilliant, yet simple: the swing has a shape, and the shape has boundaries.
From The Fundamentals of Hogan: the pane of glass as a sheet with a curve in it - an image of
the overall shape of the swing, not a rigid rail.
The modern coaching world has moved on from the pane of glass visual model - players have different body types and we know that the club cannot stay on one plane. The core principle remains the same: an efficient swing works within a sensible range of movement. A coach’s job is to find the range that suits each golfer and their needs.
The Fundamentals are Not Beginner’s Material
It’s easy to skim through the fundamentals of teaching the game and “check the box” on areas such as grip, stance, and posture.
Hogan disagreed with this approach and so does our Leadbetter coaching methodology. Watch any tour player during an underwhelming week and they revisit the basics - grip check, alignment rod, posture in the mirror. The fundamentals are not the floor of coaching, but the ceiling.
Practice is a Craft, Not a Chore
Another area of Hogan's game worth diving in to is his practice methodology. Instead of swinging for hours at a time on autopilot, he worked in short, deliberate blocks, with a clear intention for every ball. Every shot had a target, and every swing had a feeling checked for.
That is the practice model we teach to all Leadbetter-certified coaches. A good coach is not just a swing knowledge expert - they are a teacher of hands-on practice. Most amateur golfers do not fail due to a lack of practice, but because they practice in a way that reinforces the fault.
Ben Hogan understood this decades before GOLFZON developed its industry-leading sensor tracking. The principles remain the same: quality beats quantity and intention beats repetition.
For the Modern Coach
The GOLFZON Leadbetter team trains coaches who will spend their careers in a world full of launch monitors, AI training tools, and data streams that Ben Hogan could never have imagined. These resources aid player improvement and coaching but do not replace the discipline of the fundamentals. A coach who can integrate Hogan’s principles into a modern swing brings more value than one who only reads the numbers.
Advancements in golf technology provide coaches with better ways to see; Hogan imparts better ways to teach. The best modern coaches blend both for the most enriching golf education experience.
For current and aspiring coaches, reading Hogan’s Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf and David’s book, The Fundamentals of Hogan, will provide insights from two golf legends. Reading both demonstrates how one great teacher views and interprets another - showing the coaching craft in action.
GOLFZON Leadbetter Education coaches at all levels build the strongest careers by treating this profession as an expertise built on the shoulders of previous instructors. There is no better place to start than with Ben Hogan and his years of experience to round out your coaching knowledge base.
