Ben Hogan’s story is the stuff of legend. An undersized kid and iffy ball-striker who, seemingly overnight, transformed himself into one of the best golfers ever. And, perhaps, the best ball-striker ever.

His rise caused a sensation at the time. Had Hogan actually figured out the secret to golf? Many claimed so, but in this episode of Film Study—which you can watch below—we explain why Hogan’s secret that worked so well for him hurt so many golfers who tried to copy it.

Why It Worked for Hogan

Hogan grew up an undersized kid whose only way of keeping up was to learn how to hit a hot hook that would fly high and run forever. Young Hogan did this with what was in many ways a long drive swing: He made a huge backswing, massive weight shift, and his hands were rotated more under the grip, which tends to close the clubface.

This brought Hogan into professional golf, but he soon realized he would never be consistent enough to win majors with this wild ball flight.

So, Hogan made some changes to help the ball move more from left-to-right:

• He moved his hands more on top of the grip, which opened the clubface.
• He taught himself to roll the clubface open on the takeaway.
• He kept it open by cupping his left wrist at the top of the backswing.

How It Backfired for Others

What Hogan essentially did to solve his hook was to add three different slice moves into his swing—his grip, his takeaway, and his backswing wrist position. This worked for Hogan because on his downswing, Hogan put an extraordinary amount of torque into the club. Oversimplified, because Hogan was so good at twisting the clubface shut, he needed these open clubface moves to balance his golf swing out.

But for so many other golfers, discovering Hogan’s secret led to disaster. Adding more slice moves into their golf swing is the last thing they needed. Unable to release the club as aggressively as Hogan, they would leave the clubface open.

The Lesson

Copying someone else’s secret will probably lead you to a dead end. The real lesson from Hogan’s success is learning why his secret worked for him—and how to begin searching for yours.

Once again, you can watch the full video here:

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com