Jack Nicklaus Quotes

“A big part of managing a golf course is managing your swing on the course. A lot of guys can go out and hit a golf ball, but they have no idea how to manage what they do with the ball. I've won as many golf tournaments hitting the ball badly as I have hitting the ball well.”

“A kid grows up a lot faster on the golf course. Golf teaches you how to behave.”

“A Nicklaus Design golf course is done by the guys in my company that I work with, that have been trained in my vision, and they do what they think I might do. They might come in the office and ask me questions and I'd certainly answer their questions, but I'm not involved in the site visits or anything else.”

“A perfectly straight shot with a big club is a fluke.”

“But if I played well and prepared myself properly, then all I had to do was control myself and put myself in a position to win.”

“Concentration is a fine antidote to anxiety.”

“Confidence is the most important single factor in this game, and no matter how great your natural talent, there is only one way to obtain and sustain it: work.”

“Crises are part of life. Everybody has to face them, and it doesn't make any difference what the crisis is.”

“Did you know there's probably more golf played in Iceland than most places in the world? They play 24 hours a day in the summertime and the northern part is warmer than the southern part.”

“Don't be too proud to take lessons. I'm not.”

“Focus on remedies, not faults.”

“Golf is a better game played downhill.”

“Golf is game of respect and sportsmanship; we have to respect its traditions and its rules.”

“Golf was my vehicle to competition, and I can't play if I can't compete.”

“Golfers have a tendency to be very masochistic. They like to punish themselves for some reason. A lot of them like tough courses.”

“He had a lot of talent, but didn't have much dedication, wasn't organized, didn't know how to learn, didn't know how to comprehend what he was doing, didn't try to learn how to get better.”

“He has the finest, fundamentally sound golf swing I've ever seen.”

“He's going to be around a long, long time, if his body holds up. That's always a concern with a lot of players because of how much they play. A lot of guys can't handle it. But it looks like he can.”

“How people keep correcting us when we are young! There is always some bad habit or other they tell us we ought to get over. Yet most bad habits are tools to help us through life.”

“I couldn't control Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Tom Watson or Lee Trevino. The only person I could control was me. The only person I could prepare for events was me. And if I didn't play well, I didn't play well, and I wasn't going to compete.”

“I don't believe in luck. Not in golf, anyway. There are good bounces and bad bounces, sure, but the ball is round and so is the hole. If you find yourself in a position where you hope for luck to pull you through, you're in serious trouble.”

“I had polio when I was 13. I started feeling stiff, my joints ached, and over a two-week period I lost my coordination and 20 pounds.”

“I learned early in my career, where you get so wrapped up and so excited, that all of a sudden you don't think. So I worked very hard to keep myself suppressed. And that's one of the reasons I wasn't gregarious with the gallery.”

“I like trying to win. That's what golf is all about.”

“I might cook occasionally, but I'm not a good cook. That's not my passion.”

“I think I fail a bit less than everyone else.”

“I thoroughly enjoy working with kids, whether it's The First Tee or the lesson tee with my grandkids.”

“I'd rather be two strokes ahead going into the last day than two strokes behind. Having said that, it's probably easier to win coming from behind. There is no fear in chasing. There is fear in being chased.”

“I'm a firm believer that in the theory that people only do their best at things they truly enjoy. It is difficult to excel at something you don't enjoy.”

“I'm probably the only bottom-heavy golfer in the country.”