Living Inside the Shot: Ben Hogan, Presence Golf, and Self-Mastery

Ben Hogan and Pratyahara

When I was growing up in Bismarck, North Dakota, my backyard was my sacred space.

I remember spending countless hours throwing a baseball against a Rebounder, aiming at a small red square that now exists only in memory. I wore away the grass from standing in the same spot day after day. I never judged whether I hit my target or missed it. I wasn’t trying to prove anything.

I was simply immersed in the practice.

Looking back, those moments reveal something important about who I have always been.

Ironically, I didn’t choose an individual sport in high school or college.

Instead, I chose one of the most physical and violent sports a young man could play: football.

I loved football, but much of what attracted me wasn’t the game itself.

Football gave me things that individual sports could not provide at that age:

a tribe, an identity, a way to prove my toughness, and perhaps most importantly, external validation.

Like many young men, I was searching for who I was.

Returning to the Boy in the Backyard

Now, in my mature years, I find myself returning to that same boy in the backyard.

The difference is that today I am holding a golf club instead of a baseball.

Golf has found me again, but in a much deeper way.

Not as competition.

Not as achievement.

Not as a vehicle for proving myself.

But as practice.

As contemplation.

As Self-study.

As a path toward Self-mastery.

My golf journey is making a profound shift from:

“How good can I become?”

to

“How deeply can I practice?”

Paradoxically, that shift often produces better golf as well.

I have come to realize that my temperament is naturally aligned with solitary mastery. I never gravitated toward the spotlight. I was always more comfortable digging it out of the dirt than performing under the bright lights.

That is one reason Ben Hogan continues to fascinate me.

The Craftsman Archetype

Hogan lived before my time, yet his legend endures.

Not because of charisma.

Not because of showmanship.

But because of mastery.

When I study Hogan, I don’t see a celebrity.

I see a craftsman.

He seemed to live inside the shot rather than outside of it.

Much like Hogan, I can spend hours practicing without feeling as though I am practicing at all. Most people seek stimulation, applause, or novelty.

I am nourished by immersion itself.

Like craftsmen, monks, and devoted practitioners throughout history, I find peace in repetition, refinement, ritual, and devotion to fundamentals.

The deeper I go, the more I realize that Presence Golf is becoming an expression of contemplative craftsmanship.

Not golf as ego performance.

Golf as practice.

Pratyahara: Turning Awareness Inward

In the yogic tradition, there is a practice known as Pratyahara, often translated as the withdrawal of the senses.

It does not mean escaping the world.

It means becoming less distracted by it.

Instead of being pulled outward by noise, approval, fear, and comparison, awareness begins to turn inward.

The practitioner becomes absorbed in the experience itself.

This is what I see in Ben Hogan.

And increasingly, it is what I am seeking through golf.

Less concern about scores.

Less concern about what others think.

Less concern about outcomes.

More attention on the present moment.

More awareness.

More stillness.

More Presence.

I am learning to let go of grinding, forcing, and the pressure to be perfect.

I am falling in love with the art of practice.

What Presence Golf Is Really About

Last week, after a round of golf, one of the players in my group shared something with me that touched my heart.

“You are a winner in every sense of the word. You are what an authentic golfer looks like.”

He wasn’t commenting on my score.

He wasn’t commenting on my swing.

He was commenting on my state of Being.

That, to me, is what Presence Golf is all about.

The lesson I am learning from Ben Hogan and from my own practice is simple:

Live inside the shot rather than outside of it.

Where Are You Living Outside the Shot?

Most of our suffering comes from living outside the shot.

We worry about what others think.

We chase outcomes.

We compare ourselves to others.

We live in future results instead of present experience.

So here is a question worth exploring:

Where in your life are you living outside the shot?

For me, the answer has been clear.

I have spent years waiting for external validation before fully bringing Presence Golf into the world.

The fear of being seen has often held me back.

The fear of criticism.

The fear of failure.

The fear of success.

The fear of fully owning my work.

But I don’t want to live outside the shot anymore.

Not on the golf course.

Not in life.

Presence Golf is my practice.

It is my craft.

It is my path.

And I am committed to sharing it — not because of the outcome it might produce, but because it is what I am here to do.

That is what it means to live inside the shot.

And perhaps that is where true freedom begins.