The Miracle at Merion

In many ways Merion and Ben Hogan were made for each other.

In a remarkable story that could have been penned by a Hollywood scriptwriter, the game’s biggest hero returns from a life-threatening automobile accident to win one of golf’s glittering prizes over arguably the toughest course in the world. Few adjectives can truly capture the drama. No wonder it has since been named the "Miracle at Merion."

It all began on a fog-shrouded night in the early hours of the 2nd February, 1949. Hogan had just lost an 18-hole playoff against his long time buddy Jimmy Demaret at the Phoenix Open in Arizona. The new season was barely a month old but the price of success was already taking its toll on the reigning US Open and PGA champ.

Widely acknowledged as the world’s top golfer "Bantam Ben" had just come off consecutive victories at the Crosby and Long Beach tournaments. Nobody expected him to lose to Demaret, least of all Demaret, but lose he did. Three weeks on the road living out of a suitcase had left Hogan feeling physically tired and mentally jaded. Life had become a seemingly endless parade of professional tournaments and exhibition matches in backwater towns up and down the country.

Desperate for a break, Hogan made the fateful decision to drive the thousand or so miles from Phoenix back to his home in Fort Worth, Texas. It was a journey that he and his wife Valerie would not complete. Crossing a two-lane bridge near the town of Van Horn in Culberson County, Texas, Hogan's Cadillac collided head-on with a Greyhound Bus after it swung into his lane while overtaking a slow-moving truck.

Protecting his wife Hogan took the full force of the collision which saw the engine pushed into his driver's seat. Miraculously Valerie received only minor lacerations but her husband was in a bad way. It took well over an hour for an ambulance to reach the crash site on a still fogbound Highway 80. Barely conscious he was taken to a nearby clinic for emergency treatment before being transported to El Paso Hospital 150 miles away.

Diagnosed with multiple fractures including a broken collarbone, a smashed rib, a double fracture of the pelvis and a broken ankle, internal bleeding was also suspected. Still in shock Valerie received an update on his condition later the same day – her husband was not expected to live.