Quotes By Jack Nicklaus

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

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

Focus on remedies, not faults.

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 think I fail a bit less than everyone else.

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

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

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.

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

Naturally it is nice to be widely known for worthwhile achievements, but it forces you to do many things which you don't like to do and these things take up time you want for other things.

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 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.

I think that Pebble Beach is my favorite golf course to go to. I think Augusta is my favorite place to go play golf.

When I fly in a helicopter, I insist there be two sets of controls, one for me in case something happens to the pilot. I'm no expert, but I know enough to at least get the thing on the ground. Nothing scares me like the thought of not being in control.

Why are we building golf courses? Because we enjoy being outside, bringing man and nature together.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

Writers have told me more than once that I'm a better interview in defeat than in victory, which is a compliment I am extremely proud of.

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.