Top 239 Quotes & Sayings by Jack Nicklaus
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American golfer Jack Nicklaus.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
I like to catch fish and release them. I probably haven't killed a fish that I've caught in sport fishing for 20 years. No reason to kill it. You know, just take it and release it.
The fact is, I diet every day of my life. I have to work at it. But I diet so I can pig out.
Public appearances are a headache. I hold mine down to a minimum.
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.
Well, the biggest rival I had in my career was me.
People don't want to go to the dump and have a picnic, they want to go out to a beautiful place and enjoy their day. And so I think our job is to try to take the environment, take what the good Lord has given us, and expand upon it or enhance it, without destroying it.
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.
Success depends almost entirely on how effectively you learn to manage the game's two ultimate adversaries: the course and yourself.
I think I fail a bit less than everyone else.
My ability to concentrate and work toward that goal has been my greatest asset.
The Senior Tour is a good concept, although frankly I'm not astounded at its continued success. It gives a lot of guys an opportunity to extend their careers.
Golf is game of respect and sportsmanship; we have to respect its traditions and its rules.
The game is meant to be fun.
I can barely turn on my computer!
When I want a long ball, I spin my hips faster.
Golf is a better game played downhill.
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.
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.
And, of course, I'm constantly energized by designing courses around the world.
Crises are part of life. Everybody has to face them, and it doesn't make any difference what the crisis is.
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.
You have to trust your kids. They have to experience life, and you just hope you've provided them a foundation for what's right and what isn't.
Sometimes the biggest problem is in your head. You've got to believe you can play a shot instead of wondering where your next bad shot is coming from.
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.
The older you get the stronger the wind gets and it's always in your face.
Concentration is a fine antidote to anxiety.
This is a game. That's all it is. It's not a war.
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.
Well, I think that Augusta is not the same golf course that I grew up on. Bobby Jones' philosophy was giving you space off the tee; if you put it in the right side of the fairway, you ended up getting the right angle to the green.
In 1979, when I was 39, I had such a bad year, I thought it was all over. Thankfully it wasn't.
There isn't a flaw in his golf or his makeup. He will win more majors than Arnold Palmer and me combined. Somebody is going to dust my records. It might as well be Tiger, because he's such a great kid.
If I had one golf course, from a design standpoint, one that I really love, it would probably be Pinehurst. There's a totally tree-lined golf course where trees are not a part of the strategy.
A perfectly straight shot with a big club is a fluke.
Don't be too proud to take lessons. I'm not.
The best way to cope with trouble is to stay out of it as much as possible.
I thoroughly enjoy working with kids, whether it's The First Tee or the lesson tee with my grandkids.
I think that Pebble Beach is my favorite golf course to go to. I think Augusta is my favorite place to go play golf.
I'm probably the only bottom-heavy golfer in the country.
There are no maladies in my golf game. My golf game stinks.
Why are we building golf courses? Because we enjoy being outside, bringing man and nature together.
See, as much as I love the game, golf was my vehicle to competition. And I love to compete.
Sometimes, I'm an ogre. I can be short. I'll walk into the office some days and I've gotten up on the wrong side of the bed, and everybody knows it. I'm a perfectionist. I like to be organized, and I like to get everything done today.
I've been fortunate over my career to make a little history on the 16th hole at Augusta National.
Resolve never to quit, never to give up, no matter what the situation.
There are always new places to go fishing. For any fisherman, there's always a new place, always a new horizon.
Focus on remedies, not faults.
If I have a weakness, it's probably ice cream. That's where I get lax, sloppy. I'll sneak into the refrigerator at night and take two or three bites and put it back. Butter pecan. Only two or three bites, but it shows.
It's hard not to play golf that's up to Jack Nicklaus standards when you are Jack Nicklaus.
The longer you play, the better chance the better player has of winning.
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.
Through the years of experience I have found that air offers less resistance than dirt.
Mostly I built golf courses the way I played golf, which was left-to-right. But I learned very rapidly that people wanted to see more than just the way I played golf and that I had to balance up what I was doing, right-to-left, left-to-right, etc.
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.
I first saw Arnold Palmer when I was just a kid and he came to Columbus to play in a tournament. I watched him on the driving range hit balls that day. We went on to become great friends.
Professional golf is the only sport where, if you win 20% of the time, you're the best.
A kid grows up a lot faster on the golf course. Golf teaches you how to behave.
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.
Pete Dye introduced me to golf course design back in the 1960's. He came to my hometown Columbus, Ohio to work on The Golf Club.
He has the finest, fundamentally sound golf swing I've ever seen.
I like trying to win. That's what golf is all about.
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