Jack Nicklaus Quotes

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The game is meant to be fun.

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

[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.

If you're going to be a player people will remember, you have to win the Open at St. Andrews.

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

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

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.

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.

I've never set up any golf course that would favor anybody. I try to make it exactly the opposite, which is what we did at Valhalla when we modernized it to accommodate the lengths players are hitting it today.

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

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.

Oakmont, you've got to be playing slope.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

And, of course, I'm constantly energized by designing courses around the world.

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

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.

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.

All I ever wanted to do was play competitive golf against the best players in the world.

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

I never missed a putt in my mind.

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.

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.

This is a tournament. The others are all championships.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

Nobody ever remembers who finished second at anything.

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.

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.