Two great athletes hit by buses. But whose comeback was better?
An hour or so ago, Kelly Slater raised a historical challenge on our Instagram account in regards to O Wright’s rise from brain dead-ish to number one in the world.
“Maybe a comparison to Ben Hogan winning the 1950 US Open within a year of having a near-death car accident would be timely,” he wrote.
It’s a good idea. So how about it?
Ben Hogan, who is American, was one of the best golfers who ever lived. Had a golf swing that is still studied, still copied. His book Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf is the seminal golf how-to book. Had a hell of a childhood. His dad, who was a blacksmith, sat in front of Hogan when he was nine, pointed a shotgun at his chest and killed himself.
And in 1949, when he was thirty-six, Hogan had a head-on with a Greyhound bus that veered across the road. Threw himself across his wife in the passenger seat to save her. Ended up saving his own life when the steering column punctured the driver’s seat. Still. A double-fracture of the pelvis, busted ankle, busted collar bone and near-fatal blood-clots. Doctors told him he wouldn’t walk again. He did but his legs would swell and tire whenever he walked.
The following year, Hogan won the US Open in an eighteen-hole playoff. And he won five of the next seven majors he played.
And Owen?
Oh, we all thought he was cooked after his Pipeline brain injury. His condition was a mystery. His recovery was kept secret. Last May he wrote on Instagram that he couldn’t even get to his feet when he attempted surfing.
One month after the injury in December, 2015, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported, “Serious concerns surround the health of 2015 surfing world title contender, Owen Wright… Fears that Wright is still having trouble speaking and even standing have spread throughout tight-lipped surfing community…revealed he was still struggling with amnesia just last week.”
Rumours circulated. He found a girl. Had a baby.
Would he ever surf again? The idea of Owen competing on the WCT and…winning? No one was even going down that path.
At the Quiksilver Pro, Owen beat Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson, Conner O’Leary, Gabriel Medina and Matt Wilkinson to become the first injury wildcard in history to roll up at the season opener and win.
“At the start of February, I was sitting in the doctor’s office and there were question marks on the year,” Owen said after. “So to be sitting here right now, we just pushed hard and went hard. I confronted every fear of getting back into it. There were a lot of fears I needed to push through in order to get back into the sport and back into what pretty much took me out and could have taken me out forever. I kept going and kept doing it.”
You tell me. Hogan or Wright? Who’s got the better comeback story?
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
At what point does Kelly give Owen a bit of advice on his hairstyle?
I can believe the Owen comeback, with all my heart.
But that hairline is going to sabotage the whole damm fairytale.
The rug has to go before Tahiti.
Yep. Looks like he’s gonna have to go full Kelly. *Just saw the comment below. Someone beat me to it!
Congrats to Owen! One thing I was very impressed with this year with the WSL was that you could go onto their website and watch the replay of the whole days action without any spoilers (hence I haven’t frequented this website in a few days). Yesterday I had almost caught up, had a few round five heats to get through, and was wondering would I be able to see them, before watching last nights action. I asked my girl to see if it was up, she didn’t know what the fuck I was talking about so I thought “Fuck it, I’ll skip round five and just watch last nights action, the last thing I want to see is a spoiler” so I click into the WSL website and first thing I see at the top of the page is Congratulations to Owen! You fucking stupid bastards! How difficult is it for the fucking WSL to realise that most of their audience won’t be able to watch it live and want the opportunity to watch it without knowing the result! Rant over, it was a good show!
Poor guy. I actually had a similar thing where my entire surfers yoga class started without me because I was late from trying to catch up on John johns heat analyzer thingy. I missed the downward dog posture and forgot my coconut water at home. Fuck the WSL!
I still can’t get my updated app to launch, so not so impressed from my angle.
My questions: How is the WSL going to treat head injuries differently than Boxing and Football? What is the right way to do this? Are athletes expendable actors for our momentary entertainment?
Just when the WSL needs a publicity boost is my take. Couldn’t script it any better, or wait, maybe it is possible.
Glad he’s recovered.
No mention that dengue fever was involved again, too much at stake
Subtle. What are you alluding to?
Ask Derek, he alluded to it a month ago…
He’s got less backbone than my avatar… Pawle is the only chance this sees daylight- his bread ain’t buttered by industry
Decidedly. On good info he was spending a lot of time with Chas’s mate & others. Am&pm in that house.
kelly’s so predictable. look at me mom, look at me.
So commenting on BG social media posts is egotistical now?
Some of the people around here are looking at years on a shrink’s couch.
Yep. He can’t stand anyone else having the limelight, has to throw in a diversion and make about himself again.
How kind of Kelly to make sure Owen doesn’t burn up under the limelight! Ever the gracious competitor.
Yeah, but Warney couldn’t have done it without his mum.
Or his darbs
Hurley? (Elizabeth)
Speaking of. Didn’t anyone think she dropped from a 9/10 down to a 6 the moment they heard she was shacked up with him?
Can we talk about Steph’s 10? Left me stunned.
Steph would have handily beaten Slater in any head to head heat all contest.
Now you’re just trolling.
Owen’s comeback story’s still being written. The point is they’re both bloody impressive.
Definitely no guarantee of surviving that car accident nowadays, and Owen could easily have ended up like Schumacher or worse. In 1949? Shitty odds to say the least.
But at the end of the day golf is shit so Owen wins.
“Owen beat Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson, Conner O’Leary, Gabriel Medina and Matt Wilkinson to become the first injury wildcard in history to roll up at the season opener and win.”
Didn’t Mick Fanning win the Quiksilver Pro from the injury wildcard when he tore his hamstring?
No Ben Hogan.
I wanted Owen to do well, but he didn’t deserve it with that surfing. Check out Mick Fanning’s tight-lipped clapping when Owen won. He knew what was up. Ironically, it was those surfing against Owen that faced the biggest “handicap”.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and it looks like they’re forcing Kelly into the role of Hamlet.
“Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of an outrageous fortune, or to take up arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them.”
You’re just racist against goofy footers.
Maybe I am a bit of a footist.
Don’t get me started on kneelos. One called me a ‘foot surfer’ the other day.
Fanning was ripped off on one wave, all the other heats that I watched with Owen I thought he won, Snapper is hard to call though, such long waves!
Yeah, not sure why Fanning was given a 7.17 on that last wave, but a 7.83 for the first. Owen surfed that heat pretty well, though I thought Fanning was the clear winner. The final was a disgrace: 8.33 for shit turns in slop.