Golf Comebacks?

Want to talk about golf comebacks? While so much attention has been devoted to Tiger Woods' comeback from his brief self-imposed hiatus following his admissions of adultery, Ben Hogan's comeback and physically painful layoffs from his near fatal auto crash define the term and make Woods' so-called "comeback" hardly any comeback at all, though Woods' pride and reputation as a man has suffered greatly.

It was first thought that Ben Hogan would not survive the 1949 crash in which his car collided head-on with a bus in a dense fog. Doctors estimated that he might never walk again, and then he would never play golf again, let alone at any sort of championship level. Hogan proved all the medical community wrong and came back with a more dominating golf game than ever though his body was permanently weakened. Following the crash, his legs in particular were weakened and left him in perpetual pain. He played only a couple events in the 1950 campaign, first tying Sam Snead in the prestigious LA Open before losing in a playoff. In June he then won an 18-hole playoff over George Fazio and Lloyd Mangrum for the 1950 US Open title at the Merion Golf Club - East Course. Nursing his ailing body, he then took off for ten months before coming back to play in the 1951 Masters. (That's quite a layoff.) He won the tournament! He played four more tournaments that year winning three including the US Open at Oakland Hills in bringing that "Monster to its knees." The only place he didn't win was at "Hogan's Alley" where he finished 4th at his beloved Colonial Country Club. Again in 1953, Hogan played a limited schedule, but won all three major championships in which he played. That's not only a comeback, that's also domination.