Plot Synopsis

Narrated by Emmy Award-winning actor Kyle Chandler, HOGAN is a two-night biopic that centers on golf hall-of-famer Ben Hogan, presenting his life and legacy while focusing on his comeback story.

"Perseverance" (Monday, June 17): Paints a picture of Hogan's humble beginnings as a young boy in Texas, and the path that led to a career as one of golf's biggest icons and greatest champions. Following his father's suicide when Hogan was nine, Ben discovered golf upon realizing he could help out his mother financially -- working two jobs as a seamstress -- by caddying at Glen Garden Golf & Country Club six miles from the family's home. The 64-time PGA TOUR winner turned professional at the 1930 Texas Open at age 17, and soon realized he was not ready. A few years later after returning to caddying at Glen Garden, he would cross paths with Fort Worth businessman Marvin Leonard (eventually founded Colonial Country Club and Shady Oaks near Fort Worth), who became a father figure to Hogan, and helped provide financial support for him to kickstart his professional career. The victories began to pile up, with Hogan collecting nine wins between 1941-42, before reporting for service in the Army in March of 1943 during World War II. Despite never seeing combat, the war took nearly three years away from the prime of Hogan's career. Following the war, after enduring challenges from fellow Hall of Famers Byron Nelson and Sam Snead, Hogan cemented himself as the clear-cut best golfer in the world, winning 36 of 99 events that he played in from 1946-'48. He adorned the cover of TIME magazine at the beginning of 1949, but saw his soaring career trajectory come crashing to the ground in an instant, when he and his wife got into a life-threatening accident, crashing their vehicle into a bus while driving home to Fort Worth. The accident left Hogan with crushed hips and legs, a damaged shoulder, and an eye injury that would require surgeries and a new circulatory system from the waist down, putting his career in serious jeopardy.

"Perfection" (Tuesday, June 18): Only 11 months removed from the accident in January of 1950, Hogan resumed his career, losing in a playoff at the L.A. Open, but more importantly demonstrating to all that he was back as a fore to be reckoned with. Unwavering physical pain could not keep Hogan from earning his first major title at the 1950 U.S. Open. The win spiraled into an even greater dominance in professional golf than prior to the accident -- despite scaling back his schedule to only compete five or six times a year -- including two major victories in 1951 and three in 1953, which led to him becoming only the second golfer (at the time) to win the career Grand Slam. While Hogan suffered from putting woes toward the end of his career (last competitive round on May 13, 1971), his record in the U.S. Open is something that will never be equaled, never having finished outside of the top-10 from 1940-'60. Hogan's growing legend served as the inspiration for the 1951 motion picture "Follow the Sun". His celebrity also led to him establishing a golf equipment company with his namesake: Ben Hogan, which held a stronghold on equipment sales among amateur golfers for four decades. The owner of perhaps the most iconic swing golf has ever seen also helped him score a best-selling book, "Five Lessons: the Modern Fundamentals of Golf," which has sold millions of copies in 38 languages around the world.

The film also includes acknowledgments on Hogan from current PGA TOUR stars, along with a generation of TOUR players waiting in the wings to follow Hogan's era; all in complete admiration of the Texan's aura and impact on the professional golf landscape.