The Most Controversial Golfers

Ben Hogan

Hogan, too, was self-absorbed. (Of course that self-absorption is part of what made these guys great in the first place. Discuss among yourselves.) The famously intimidating "Hawk" didn't do jolly, grip-and-grin golf, and he didn't apologize for it. He dug his game "out of the ground," could freeze an opponent's blood with his icy stare, and bristled at the winning panache of Arnold Palmer. The latter attribute may have sealed Hogan's fate as an unlovable champion, because really, how could you not like Palmer? Only Santa Claus has more fans. Hogan did soften, however, and became more popular with fans after his remarkable recovery from a cataclysmic 1949 car crash.