08/27/2026
Gene Sheeley, Master Club Maker for the Ben Hogan Company, was a golf club craftsman in the purest sense. Mr. Hogan had hired him away from Kenneth Smith during the early days of his company because he knew that Sheeley was versed in the 'old ways' of making quality golf clubs. That was 1964 and Sheeley quickly became Mr. Hogan's most trusted personal club designer. He worked very closely with Mr. Hogan on all club designs and his job was to craft by hand the iron heads that eventually would be sent as masters to make the tooling to order the raw iron heads.
At some point in his career, he tried his hand at designing clubs with his own name on them. Not much is known about these clubs, but he did design a wedge that was produced in very limited numbers.
Thanks to the incredible generosity of one of our own board members, the museum is now the proud owner of one of those wedges! Paul Darwin, an accomplished Texas junior and college golfer, and huge fan of Mr. Hogan, has donated this beautiful example of the Sheeley wedge from his personal collection to our own. Thank you so very much, Paul! Our collection continues to grow. We hope you'll make plans soon for a visit to see it for yourself!
