Hogan's 1953 MacGregor Irons Up For Live Auction

Green Jacket Auctions says its the most important set of irons they've auctioned and it's hard to disagree considering the history behind the set.

Jimmy Powell is offering them for sale through Green Jacket, which vetted the irons against a set on display in the Hogan Room at Far Hills. The auction began March 26th and ends April 12th, with the current high bid at $7,320.

From the description:

The offered set is one of only three Ben Hogan-used MacGregor iron sets known to exist, and the only set in private hands. Those two other sets are owned by the USGA Museum and Merion Golf Club - the site of Hogan's 1950 U.S. Open victory.

We were most interested in the USGA Museum set, as it also dates to the 1953 Season. According to the USGA Museum, that barely-played set was used by Hogan to win the 1953 U.S. Open. The USGA recently granted us access to their 1953 U.S. Open set, which is displayed in the Ben Hogan Room at the USGA Museum in Far Hills, NJ.

So what happened when we closely inspected the USGA Museum set? Well, let's just say that we were in for the shock of our collecting lives!

The USGA Museum set of Ben Hogan irons attributed to the 1953 U.S. Open was actually a partially mixed set - it was missing the original 9 iron that matched the rest of the set (Ben Hogan Personal Model 1037). Well, guess where that 9-iron resides?  YES! - the missing 9 iron from the USGA Museum set  is in our possession and is included with our set of Ben Hogan's 1953 irons.

Quite significantly, while the USGA Museum set shows little use, our irons (with the exception of that 9 iron, which also doesn't show much use) are without question Hogan's actual "working" clubs from one of the greatest seasons in golf history.