Former Tour player and longtime CBS golf color commentator Ken Venturi has written a book — “Getting Up and Down: My 60 Years in Golf” (Triumph Books, April 2004) about his life in professional golf. Golf Magazine recently ran an excerpt from the book in which Venturi recalled how Arnold Palmer broke a rule on the historic 12th hole of Augusta National on his way to beating Venturi to win his first Masters Golf Tournament in 1958. Not surprisingly, that was interpreted by some in the golf community as Venturi saying that Palmer had cheated on his way to winning the Masters.
This NY Times article today has Venturi falling over himself publicly apologizing for what he termed a “misunderstanding” over his observation regarding Arnie’s rule-bending. “Arnold played a second ball incorrectly,” Venturi said in the statement. “This was due in part to Arnold not understanding the rule, which stipulates a player must declare playing a second ball prior to the playing of the original ball. This does not make Arnold Palmer a cheat.”
With his second ball, Palmer saved a par-3 that the Masters rules committee upheld on appeal, in contrast to the double-bogey five that he would have had with his embedded ball. Those two strokes turned out to be the difference in Palmer’s winning his first of seven major titles (and first of four Masters).
Note to Venturi — Don’t bash the King.

Ben Hogan was one of the greatest golfers of all-time, and may have been the best pure ball-striker of all time. During his life, Mr. Hogan wrote a classic book about the golf swing — “Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf” — and then, at the peak of his popularity fifty years ago, he supposedly disclosed the key secret of his swing in a Life magazine article. Nevertheless, many golf swing analysts over the years did not believe that the notoriously competitive Hogan had fully disclosed his “secret” because he did not want his competitors to benefit from it, and Mr. Hogan did nothing to dissuade them from that belief. Accordingly, a virtual cottage industry has developed from various golf swing analysts speculating as to the true nature of Hogan’s swing secret. Mr. Hogan died in 1997 without ever fully disclosing his secret.
This NY Times article tells about a new Hogan memoir, “Afternoons with Mr. Hogan” (Gotham Books, 2004) by Jody Vasquez, a Texas oil-and-gas executive, who contends that Mr. Hogan disclosed the secret to Mr. Vazquez in 1967 while Mr. Vazquez had a job shagging range balls for Mr. Hogan. Mr. Vazquez’s short version of the secret is as follows:

“The Secret is the correct functioning of the right leg, with emphasis on maintaining the angle of the right knee on the back and forward swings. Combined with a slight cupping of the left wrist, it produces optimum balance and control, and allows you to apply as much speed and power as you wish.”

I’m going to go hit a bucket of balls over the lunch hour and try this. ;^)
By the way, the best book on the complex and talented Mr. Hogan is Curt Sampson‘s “Hogan.”

The NY Times Dave Anderson weighs in with this piece that points out that professional golfer Vijay Singh‘s current streak of finishing in the top 10 in 12 straight Tour events is not particularly impressive in comparison to the streaks that Byron Nelson and the late Ben Hogan put together years ago. Author Dan Jenkins, the defender of all things old in regard to professional golf, would heartily agree with Mr. Anderson.
By the way, speaking of Mr. Hogan, Curt Sampson‘s “Hogan” is an excellent biography of that complex and talented man.