Ben Hogan versus Sam Snead

Sam Snead, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and George Rogers

Ben Hogan Versus Sam Snead In Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf

From 1963 to 1970, the Shell Oil Company sponsored a series of made-for-television matches featuring top golfers, including Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Tony Lema, Peter Alliss, and dozens of others. Women’s golf was not ignored, either, with matches between Marley Spearman, Marilynn Smith, Mickey Wright, Marlene Streit and others.

The matches were filmed over several days and condensed to a watchable segment.

The series was revived from 1994 – 2003.

In a way, the recent editions of “The Match” are an echo of The Wonderful World of Golf. The key difference is that “The Match” is live. Technology has changed, though, making such a thing possible with multiple, lightweight cameras.

Of note to Michigan golfers is that in 1998, Tom Helman and Phil Mickelson teed it up for a show at Boyne Golf’s Bay Harbor in Petoskey.

In 1965, Hogan faced off against Sam Snead at Houston Country Club. Two legends going head-to-head is pure magic. It was Hogan’s only appearance. Snead was featured four times.

A 30 minute series of highlights follows:

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