Top 239 Quotes & Sayings by Jack Nicklaus - Page 4

This is a tournament. The others are all championships.

I don't think you would have missed that putt, but in these circumstances, I would never give you the opportunity.

I know it sounds selfish, wanting to do something no one else has done. But that's what you're out here for - to separate yourself from everyone else.

None of the guys did anything. We never did anything. I never really got into the workout room until I was about 40 years old. I was pretty strong and I didn't think I needed that much.

I never used golf as a job. I used it as a game. I always thought if I played the game well, my financial rewards would be there, but it came from, because I played well. But I had to play well to get the financial rewards.

Tiger Woods has been unlucky with his body. I don't know whether some of it is self-induced or some of it is just unlucky. But we never know what happens with guys.

I don't know if I'll ever do it again or not, but frankly I don't really care.

I played in a basketball league until I was 40 years old. I played every Monday night and the guys would say, "You take him out, and you'll see us afterwards."

[My son] Michael came along and he played a little bit of everything. He went to Georgia Tech on a golf scholarship.

My kids all do love to hunt and fish. When they get together, I think that's what they get together more for than anything else.

That's sort of overkill. We've had 70 years of the Ryder Cup, and it's gotten along just fine. The pendulum will swing back without making a monumental thing about it.

I have a couple [of grandsons] that are in college playing lacrosse. It's great and it's fun. But they all also play golf a little bit.

There's more to be learned here [St. Andrews] about course design than anywhere. Collection bunkers, false fronts, bump shots. The fundamentals of design became fundamental because of what's here. And it happened accidentally. Or maybe accidentally on purpose.

Nick O'Leary loves to compete. His work ethic is fantastic, and that's what I like about him. He works, and works, and works; and if he has to get better, he gets better.

I think Tiger Woods is a determined young man who really wants to play.

I think my boys handled it pretty much the same way with their children, but my grandsons all ended up playing football or lacrosse.

They [my sons] all went to different schools and all did different things. They're about as different for five kids as you'll ever see. They don't do anything the same.

You're not going to tell me that you're going to find a person who's not a very good athlete and he or she is going to be a great player. But anyone can play the game. That's the nice thing about the game. You don't really have to be a world-class athlete to play the sport [golf] and have fun because of handicap systems.

I didn't push any of my kids into golf, and they played golf because they wanted to.

I suppose I get a lot of questions about Tiger. But Tiger Woods is a tremendous talent. He plays well. He has a great work ethic. He's probably as talented of a golfer as anyone who's ever played.

None of my 22 grandchildren have genetics played. Three of my four boys were golf pros, but I think they all sort of said, "You know, I'm not going to push" with their children. I was the same with my kids. I said, "You know, if they want to play golf, that's fine, but I'm not going to push them."

Any golfer worth his salt has to cross the sea and try to win the British Open.

When I look back on when I grew up, not even football players lifted weights. That was back 50 years ago.

Oakmont is probably the premier - Oakmont and Augusta National are probably the top two set of greens in the country.

I'm deadly serious even when I play tennis against my kids. I want to beat their brains out.

Ben Hogan was not really a big hitter. He was long enough. But Ben Hogan today? Ben Hogan today could not compete at Augusta because he did not have the massive length to compete against the long hitters. Power was always an issue at Augusta, but never so dominant that you couldn't play it.

I guess that's why they call it Hell.

We also play a Father/Son at home and I play with Steve, too. I try to mix it up. We play two or three times a year, but that's about it.

I've said many times before that Pebble Beach is a wonderful thinking-man's golf course. That is why it is such a great U.S. Open venue.

At a certain point in the [golf] tournament, it becomes a match play event and becomes a match play event against who is on the leaderboard, so you have to know who is there to do what you're going to try to do.

We [with my wife] felt like we had the ability to help people not just on a local basis, but on a national basis.

What's interesting about golf is that most athletes end up gravitating toward golf because it is such a difficult sport.

It's a great sense of accomplishment when you can take something and really think it's really tough, and then all of a sudden you conquer it. That makes you feel pretty good.

You get the kids today into the sport, and then they can't get to the "next level." I mean, come on, that's a bunch of junk.

I think in my case winning fans came as a result of winning tournaments. Certainly, I didn't have too many supporters when I came on Tour. I didn't look like an athlete, I was overweight, had a crew cut, baggy clothes and on top of that I didn't smile much. I was very serious about my game, literally and figuratively the heavy.

The holes are numbered.

For years, I never thought I needed a short game. Finally I just decided to do something about it. I needed to get up and down from tough spots on the par-5s for my birdies. So I went to Phil [Rogers]. He's the best. For the last couple weeks, Phil has been staying at my house and we've been practicing in the evening.

I play the Father/Son every year on the PGA TOUR Champions. I split it between Jackie and Gary as my playing partners.

Nick O'Leary is a tough kid. He doesn't use gloves. It's freezing outside and he's obviously wearing short sleeves like all the other guys that let their "guns" stick out.

You try to figure out the two things that I use as the philosophy to do a golf course. The first is that most people are really interested in something being aesthetically pleasing and good to the eye. The second is that a good golfer likes good golf shots.

Barbara [my wife] and I said a long time ago that if we were in a position to help somebody, it would be kids. So when we started the Memorial Tournament (in Columbus, OH), Nationwide Children's Hospital, which saved my daughter's life when she was less than a year old, was the beneficiary from day one.

Arnold's place in history will be as the man who took golf from being a game for the few to a sport for the masses. He was the catalyst who made that happen.

We all would like to struggle like Tiger is struggling.

I don't play much golf anymore. I can't - if I break 80, I'm doing pretty well.

I love the golf courses because it brought the best out of me. It made me prepare, made me work at it, made me do the things I needed to do to be better, and that's what I loved about USGA events. If you couldn't handle it, then you got beat, and that's OK.

You don't think anything about age when you're playing [golf]. I mean, why would you ever think about that.

[My boys] they're all different. Jackie was very competitive. He was a tough kid - a little bit like Nick. Steve was sort of a finesse guy. He was a little bit like Nick - if he could touch it, he'd catch it. He played wide receiver at Florida State. Then, Gary came along and Gary was more my size.

Oakmont, you've got to be playing slope.

Tom Watson, Tom Watson blew, what, two PGA Championships and a U.S. Open. Did it destroy his life? No, it didn't destroy his life. He learned from it. He went on to win a lot of major championships and obviously became one of the world's great players.

I would never deny that Jack Nicklaus is the greatest player who ever lived.

I think you've all heard my story about my daughter and how we felt Children's Hospital saved her life when she was less than a year old. I won't go through all of the details of that.

My boys don't play as much as they used to, but when we do go out and play, it gets competitive, that's for sure - there's no question about it.

...said Nicklaus, 'was a brotherhood, I suppose'.

I don't think about winning the Masters as part of the slam. You want to win the Masters because of what it means to the game.

Bob Ford is a great guy. He's a great friend. He's done a great job at Oakmont and Seminole. He's a very quiet man. He doesn't get in the middle of everything, but he understands what a nice job he's done at both places.

If somebody says they don't watch the leaderboard, I don't buy that, I'm sorry. Because you've got to know where you are to know how to play.

I always look to see what Arnold [Palmer] shot; it's a habit. We will always compete against each other.

If you design something pretty with good golf shots in it, then I think that's the combination that creates a really nice golf course.

When the British Open is in Scotland, there's something special about it. And when it's at St. Andrews, it's even greater.