Putting is like wisdom - partly a natural gift and partly the accumulation of experience.

For years I did take my time, but that was because I hated waiting to hit shots - I adopted a pace where I didn't have to stand by my ball and wait.

[Golf]is deceptively simple, endlessly complicated. A child can play it well, and a grown man can never master it. Any single round of it is full of unexpected triumphs and perfect shots that end in disaster. It is almost a science, yet it is a puzzle without an answer. It is gratifying and tantalizing, precise and unpredictable. It requires complete concentration and total relaxation. It satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect. It is at the same time, rewarding and maddening. And it is without doubt the greatest game mankind has ever invented.

I started [flying] by being scared. When I was an amateur I played a couple tournaments and I had to fly, and got into weather and stuff, and it scared me, and I decided that would not work, I had to learn to fly, I had to find out about airplanes and aeronautical engineering and what it was all about.

I stopped playing in the Masters in 2004, I stopped playing in the Par-3 [Contest], and now it's time to end this part of my Masters career. I would love to go on doing it forever, but I don't have the physical capability to hit the shot the way I would want to hit it. So I'll have to be content to watch.

Had I not become a professional golfer, I think I would have pursued some type of career in aviation.

An athlete must have a certain cockiness to succeed and win, but an athlete must also care about the game he or she plays.