[1] Hobens entered the 1899 Open Championship at Royal St George's Golf Club located in Sandwich, England.

After shooting a disappointing 90 in the first round he withdrew, but the experience he gained competing against Harry Vardon, James Braid and Willie Park, Jr. would give him confidence to continue his aspirations to be a successful golf professional.

In April 1901, Hobens moved less than five miles to Glen Ridge Golf Club and George Thomson from North Berwick took over at Yountakah.

On 17 January 1916, Rodman Wanamaker, a keen amateur golfer and heir to the Wanamaker department store fortune (now Macy's), held a meeting at the Taplow Club, in the Hotel Martinique on the corner of Broadway and West 32nd Street in New York City for the purpose of forming the Professional Golfers' Association of America.

[3] Hobens was one of seven chosen to make up the original organizing committee and one of three professionals who wrote the PGA's first constitution and by-laws.

The committee met several times at Hotel Martinique in Manhattan before the constitution, fashioned on the British PGA, was approved on 10 April 1916 when their first business was conducted.

The first PGA Championship was held in 1916 at the Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, New York, and Jim Barnes—after defeating Jock Hutchison in the final match—hoisted the Wanamaker Trophy.

John D. Dunn was head of the 18-member teaching staff, and the list of instructors read like a who's who of golfers from the period and the facility was the largest of its kind in the city.

Upon making his backswing, his clubhead hooked a weed, or a "creeper" as it was called by Jerome Travers, which caused his ball to move.

[10] While serving as the head professional at the Knickerbocker Country Club in Tenafly, New Jersey, Hobens provided golf lessons to the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh and his family.

His granddaughter, Barbara Hobens, as well as her family, were invited guests at the PGA's 90th anniversary celebrations at the Radisson Hotel Martinique, New York City, in 2006.