At least one golf writer thinks Hogan's injuries dwarfed Tiger's:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/golf/article4153046.ecePatrick Foster
As Tiger Woods limped his way to his fourteenth major title around the lush turf of Torrey Pines, his victory was as much over the pain in his left knee as the plucky attempts of Rocco Mediate.
Reeling from his second operation on the joint in five years, Woods was visibly affected by the after-effects of arthroscopic surgery barely nine weeks ago. “The upside is that I have been through this process before and know how to handle it,” he said at the time.
For all the hobbling and grimacing, however, Woods is not the first to land the US Open after coming back from surgery. Fifty-eight years ago, Ben Hogan, the Texan and one of the all-time greats of the game, stunned the world by emerging victorious at the tournament 16 months after a serious car crash.
The injuries that Hogan was carrying, however, make Woods's knee look like a chipped fingernail. In February 1949, Hogan was travelling in a car away from a tournament in Phoenix, Arizona, to Fort Worth, Texas, when through the morning fog a Greyhound bus smashed into their vehicle. Hogan threw himself across the lap of his wife, Valerie, taking the brunt of the collision and, it is generally accepted, saving her life.
Her husband, however, was left with a double fracture of the pelvis, a broken collarbone, a deep gash above his left eye, broken ribs, a mangled ankle, damaged bladder, a blood clot to the right lung, another in the left leg, as well as horrific cuts and bruises.
It took more than an hour to free Hogan from the wreckage, with the Associated Press issuing his obituary to every newspaper in the land. The only surgeon his wife thought could save him was in New Orleans, where storms had grounded all commercial aircraft. In the end, the US Air Corps gave permission for a training flight to ferry the doctor to him. Charlie Bartlett, a golf writer at the time, saw Hogan at his bedside, and wrote: “Here was a gaunt, wisp of a man. Frankly, I wondered whether Ben would ever walk again.”
Walk again he did. His return to the sport, 11 months after his accident, at the Los Angeles Open counts as one of the most amazing comebacks of all time. His legs had to be bandaged every day and he was in obvious pain, yet took second place after losing in a play-off to Sam Snead.
However, it was in the 1950 US Open that Hogan gave his greatest performance when, having to play 36 holes in one day for the first time since his accident, he parred the 18th to force a play-off after recording bogeys at 15 and 17. Needing plenty of rest that night, he returned to the course rejuvenated and shot a one-under par 69 to finish four strokes ahead of Lloyd Mangrum and six ahead of George Fazio.
Tiger was interviewed by ESPN's Kenny Mayne today and said that he did not feel pain on every swing and never knew when it would be there. Taking nothing away from his achievement but compare that to Hogan's difficulty in even walking and winning the Open, in the heat, playing 36 on Saturday and 17 in a playoff the following day.