Jack nicklaus quotes

You're always struggling because you're not playing on a 53-and-a-third by a 120-yard field. You're not playing on a baseball diamond. With golf, every field is different and every atmosphere is different. The grass is different. The weather is different. You're outside. You're not in a stadium. There are so many different variables, so you never master golf. So, I think good athletes like a challenge.

We don’t have to do a bunch of things to figure out how to win the Ryder Cup. Just go play golf. ... I’m a little bit too casual probably about a lot of things, but you can’t force good play. Good play comes from good hard work and actually being prepared to play, not being forced to play.

There's a guy who won't be in contention. There's another one I don't have to worry about.

Golf is a game of precision, not strength.

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

I don't really have a problem saying good-bye to things. All things come to an end.

Pursue what you love, what you are passionate about. Don't let somebody else dictate your life's path.

Donald Trump has been a good friend for a long time. I texted him after the election and I said 'congratulations, Mr. President. The Nicklauses are all happy for the Trumps,' and I said, 'It's time to bring American together, make American great again as you wish.'

I knew that if I kept the pressure on and didn't do anything stupid I would probably win.

I'm more proud of the good rounds I've played while hitting the ball badly than of the great rounds while hitting the ball well. I understand my swing well enough to get myself through a tournament and win it. I've made it work.

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 Tiger Woods can.

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

I've wanted to design golf courses ever since I was a kid. I suppose it comes from the way I've played the game. To find the proper way to play any hole, I've always begun by asking myself what the architect has tried to do with it.

The US Open flag eliminates a lot of players. Some players just weren't meant to win the US Open. Quite often, they know it.

The longer you play, the better chance the better player has of winning.

I never thought about being No. 1. I just kept trying to be No. 1.

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.

We called [my son] Gary "Little Herschel" when he was in middle school - but then he didn't grow any taller. He ended up playing golf and being a really nice golfer.

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.

One of the worst mistakes you can make in golf is trying to force the game.

People only do their best at things they truly enjoy

Confidence is believing in your own ability, knowing what you have to do to win. My confidence was developed through preparation.

I don't think you ever will yourself to win. I think you prepare yourself the best you can, get yourself in the best mindset you can get in, and go after it.

I don't believe in philosophies. I believe in fundamentals.

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

Complacency is a continuous struggle that we all have to fight.

Scoring comes from being able to preserve what you've got and play your smart shots when you need to play them and not do stupid things and take advantage of things when have you them.

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.

There are always new places to go fishing. For any fisherman, there's always a new place, always a new horizon

Such is putting! 2% technique, 98% inspiration or confidence or touch...the only thing great putters have in common is touch and that is the critical ingredient...none of them found it through mechanizing a stroke, nor do I believe they could maintain it that way.

Nobody ever remembers who finished second at anything.

Focus on remedies, not faults.

The long irons are the nemesis of the average golfer. I'm convinced that the underlying reason for this is that he keeps hearing how hard they are to handle. They're not that difficult, truly.

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.

If a guy is a good athlete, he'll end up being a pretty decent golfer if he just takes it up. But you never master it; even the best players in the world never master the game.

The fact is, I diet every day of my life. I have to work at it. But I diet so I can pig out.

It's difficult to excel at something you don't truly enjoy.

Pete Egoscue has totally changed my life. Never have I experienced such complete pain relief as I have by following the Egoscue Method.

Achievement is largely the product of steadily raising one's level of aspiration and expectation.

Concentration is a fine antidote to anxiety.

My ability to concentrate and work toward that goal has been my greatest asset.

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

Public appearances are a headache. I hold mine down to a minimum.

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

I'm tired of giving my best and not having it be good enough.

Pressure is what you live for...if you are going to be successful in life, you're going to have pressure.

I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head.

When I want a long ball, I spin my hips faster.

Who in the world remembers who won the 1975 Westchester Classic or the 1978 Western Open? Basically, the majors are the only comparison over time . . . played on the same courses for generations. All the best players are always there.

Reflection is a scene that I will cherish forever.

I never missed a putt in my mind.

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

The worse you're performing, the more you must work mentally and emotionally. The greatest and toughest art in golf is "playing badly well." All the true greats have been masters at it.

Golf really excites me only when the course is difficult and challenging. I love competing. The pressure of competition against fine holes and fine players makes me feel very much alive.

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.

Well, the biggest rival I had in my career was me.

Golf is a nice game, but that's all. It's never going to be an exciting game to watch on TV. It's not a circus and never will be one. The audience for golf is not going to change significantly. It's always going to be people who play it, understand it, and love it.

There is no room in your mind for negative thoughts. The busier you keep yourself with the particulars of shot assessment and execution, the less chance your mind has to dwell on the emotional. This is sheer intensity.

Talent isn't as important as the work and dedication necessary to become competent.

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

Tee your ball high...air offers less resistance than dirt.

If you'd asked me at 30 where I'd be during the Masters when I was 46, I'd have pictured myself on a boat fishing, smoking a cigar, drinking a mint julep and watching it on television.

Age doesn't make a difference either. Whether you're 20 or 70, you can still play together. There are so many different things you can do with golf that you can't do in other sports.

In 1979, when I was 39, I had such a bad year, I thought it was all over. Thankfully it wasn't.

Before every shot, I go to the movies

The best way to cope with trouble is to stay out of it as much as possible.

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.

It's great to win, but it's also great fun just to be in the thick of any truly well and hard fought contest against opponents you respect, whatever the outcome.

I understand golf is a game, and I've never treated it as anything else. Family is something that's very special, and so they all contributed to the room. They all contributed to what my life was, my career was.

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.

Essentially, he has been retired since he was 21.

We're not perfect every time. We make mistakes just like everybody else. But, we stay on top of it, and we stay with it, and we make sure we get it right.

It takes hundreds of good golf shots to gain confidence, but only one bad one to lose it.

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.

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 can win tournaments when you're mechanical, but golf is a game of emotion and adjustment. If you're not aware of what's happening to your mind and your body when you're playing, you'll never be able to be the very best you can be.

The one strongest, most important part of my game is that I want to be the best. I won't accept anything less that that. My ability to concentrate and work toward hat goal has been my greatest asset.

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

Johnny Miller is a very honest guy. That may have been to his detriment sometimes. On television, he's too honest. We talk about it a lot. Do you really need to be that honest? You know what I mean? But he's a good man. He's a good family man. He's got good values, and we're delighted to have him as our honoree.

The golf course is always in good shape. Paul Latshaw does a reasonable job.

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.

You have to love something and have a passion for it to be disciplined. My commitment was purely to golf

The importance of my legacy is not the golf course, it's what my life is, and what my life is intended to be. The game of golf is a game. My family is my life.

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.

That "I don't give a darn" attitude is probably why I've shot so many good final rounds over the years when I started the day a few shots behind with nothing to lose. . . and maybe that's why I've shot so many bad last rounds when I was ahead and knew I couldn't afford a mistake.

I came back and in '63, I was at the British Open, trying to win my first British Open. And I had what I thought was a two-shot lead with two holes to play at Lytham. I remember it like it was yesterday. Anybody with a proper brain would have played the ball short of the hole. I didn't have a proper brain at the time. But you have to make that mistake to learn it.

When you lip out several putts in a row, you should never think that means that you're putting well. When you're putting well, the only question is what part of the hole it's going to fall in, not if it's going in.

Once you play a tournament, you're playing against the golf course, you're playing against yourself and trying to do the best you can.

I've always tried to play golf with a golf club. I have a hard time driving with my rifle. I mean, 18 is really narrow ... I have no problem with the course, except for the tee shot on 18.

Every putt is different. Your feet dictate the stroke by how they feel on the green. I just never used the same stroke on every putt.

Nobody - but nobody - has ever become really proficient at golf without practice, without doing a lot of thinking and then hitting a lot of shots. It isn't so much a lack of talent; it's a lack of being able to repeat good shots consistently that frustrates most players. And the only answer to that is practice.

I've had a lot of majors where I didn't play well until the last round. Keep yourself in contention; that's the name of the game. I usually ended up shooting a good round and all of a sudden, somehow, I won.

I never went into a tournament or round of golf thinking I had to beat a certain player. I had to beat the golf course. If I prepared myself for a major, went in focused, and then beat the golf course, the rest took care of itself.

Athletes today get into a single-minded, one sport routine. I can't stand it.

If there is one thing I have learned during my years as a professional, it is that the only thing constant about golf is its inconstancy.

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.

Professional golf is the only sport where, if you win 20% of the time, you're the best.

The game is meant to be fun.

A big part of managing a golf course is managing your swing on the course.

Ask yourself how many shots you would have saved if you always developed a strategy before you hit, always played within your capabilities, never lost you temper, and never got down on yourself.

Learn the fundamentals of the game and stick to them. Band-Aid remedies never last.

The successful people seem to have blinders on. Everything is straight ahead. They go forward and know exactly what they're going to do once they've made up their mind to do it, and by God they don't look sideways.

Success depends almost entirely on how effectively you learn to manage the game's two ultimate adversaries: the course and yourself.

If I had only one more round to play, I would choose to play it at Pebble Beach. I've loved this course from the first time I saw it. It's possibly the best in the world.

Jones is the greatest golfer who ever lived and probably ever will live. That's my goal. Bobby Jones. It's the only goal.

If you want to hit it farther, hit it better.

If there is one thing golf demands above all else, it is honesty.

This is a game. That's all it is. It's not a war.

Resolve never to quit, never to give up, no matter what the situation.

I always practice as I intend to play.

I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head. It's like a color movie. First I 'see' where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes and I 'see' the ball going there: its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behavior on landing. Then there is this sort of fadeout, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images to reality.

Golf is you against yourself.

Through years of experience I have found that air offers less resistance than dirt.

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

There is no room in your mind for negative thoughts.

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.

Golf is a better game played downhill.

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

Golf is not, and never has been, a fair game.

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.

As long as I'm prepared, I always expect to win.

I don't care how old your children get, you're always a dad.

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.

Keeping the head still is golf's one universal, unarguable fundamental.

Confidence is when you stand over a shot and know you're going to make it because you've done it time and time again.