Arnold Palmer Quotes & Sayings

I've always been a big thinker that the more international competition that we create through sports the better relationships we'll have with countries. — Arnold Palmer

I have had a love affair with Wake Forest since my undergraduate days, but I didn't realize until many years later what I had truly learned at Wake Forest, both in and out of the classroom, about the meaning of a productive and meaningful life, — Arnold Palmer

I can sum it up like this: Thank God for the game of golf. — Arnold Palmer

Here is a philosophy of boldness to take advantage of every tiny opening toward victory. — Arnold Palmer

I think the guys are more conscious of the fact that being in good physical condition under the conditions that they play will make them better players. — Arnold Palmer

Success in golf depends less on strength of body than upon strength of mind and character. — Arnold Palmer

I have a tip that will take five strokes off anyone's golf game. It's called an eraser. — Arnold Palmer

Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you. — Arnold Palmer

If you are really serious about playing golf and playing good golf, stick to the basic fundamentals. Sure, there's going to be a little change here and a change there, but you don't want to make them. You want to stick to the things that you started with, and you learned, and you know how to apply them. — Arnold Palmer

My grandson Sam Saunders has been playing golf since he could hold a club and I spent a lot of time with him over the years. Like my father taught me, I showed him the fundamentals of the game and helped him make adjustments as he and his game matured over the years. — Arnold Palmer

I probably have a club in my hands 360 days a year, one way or another, playing with friends or just fiddling around or hitting balls. — Arnold Palmer

Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated. — Arnold Palmer

The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done. — Arnold Palmer

I love America. I wanted to play golf. — Arnold Palmer

I was born in 1929, that was the depression, so the golf course was manned by my father and two guys, they worked for my dad and they took me with them everywhere they went. And it was fun. — Arnold Palmer

What do I mean by concentration? I mean focusing totally on the business at hand and commanding your body to do exactly what you want it to do. — Arnold Palmer

Everyone I built a course for thinks they have the best golf course in the world and I'm very pleased and proud of that. — Arnold Palmer

I think I've heard somebody say that I was a well-dressed golfer. I guess that has something to do with the fact that a lot of people who play golf don't dress very well. — Arnold Palmer

When you play by the rules, defy mental demons, overcome every challenge, and enjoy a walk in the country at the same time - that's being alive. — Arnold Palmer

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

I would urge the government to allocate more funds toward fighting cancer. My own situation, it made me think. It made me think about the potential of dying. I wouldn't say I was scared. I'm more scared of how it will happen than of it happening. I'm not scared that I'm going to die. I think of how I'm going to die ... I don't want to linger. That scares me a little. The idea of lingering. — Arnold Palmer

The game has such a hold on golfers because they compete not only against an opponent, but also against the course, against par, and most surely- against themselves. — Arnold Palmer

I always knew what was most important to me. When I was growing up, nothing was more important than golf, but that's the attitude of a young person who hasn't a care in the world. Later on I figured it out. Family was first. Always. Then golf and business come after. — Arnold Palmer

If you can concentrate on what you're doing and have the desire to do the things you have to do to win, you'll succeed. — Arnold Palmer

I look back, it taught me something - it taught me how to live, how to be a better guy, not let defeat be the end of my life. — Arnold Palmer

I would like to say, however, that a man might be walking around lucky and not know it unless he tries. — Arnold Palmer

The fans, I loved them. My mother would be in the gallery, I would look right at my mother and not remember. — Arnold Palmer

The more I practice the luckier I get. — Arnold Palmer

I think today's athletes generally are spoiled by what's happened to salaries, but I also think that golfers have maintained the best demeanor of any sport. — Arnold Palmer

My search for ways to improve my touch has never ended. We players tried a lot of different things and compared notes. Little fads would set in. — Arnold Palmer

The secret of concentration is the secret of self-discovery. You reach inside yourself to discover your personal resources, and what it takes to match them to the challenge. — Arnold Palmer

I'm particularly proud of anything the House and the Senate agree on, — Arnold Palmer

What other people may find in poetry or art museums, I find in the flight of a good drive. — Arnold Palmer

I talk to golfers, I talk to my grand kids about their game, and tell them to develop a system, Now, when they're young. And if they develop that system, it will be the crutch they need to be good. To know that system and make it work for you, know what it is and make it work. — Arnold Palmer

You can describe my round as having moments of ecstasy and stark raving terror. I looked like I knew what I was doing at times and at other times I looked like a twenty handicap player. — Arnold Palmer

I've noticed the sound of the golf ball being hit by the golf club is different, and much more realistic, with the hearing aids. The sound with the hearing aids makes sense, and better represents what I know is happening to the golf ball. So you could say that the hearing aids help give me confidence regarding my golf game. — Arnold Palmer

On the Old Course at St. Andrews: This is the origin of the game, golf in its purest form, and it's still played that way on a course seemingly untouched by time. Every time I play here, it reminds me that this is still a game. — Arnold Palmer

If Tiger Woods slamming his club into the ground is the biggest worry wehave, our sport isinprettygood shape. — Arnold Palmer

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. — Arnold Palmer

I worked for dad on the grounds and I was in high school and I said I wanted to go to college, and he said, well, you figure it out. He said I will pay for your college but you're going to go to St. Vincent. St. Vincent College right here. That's about as much as I can afford, you work here, right here at home. I said, what if I can get somewhere else? And he said if I can get there, that's your call. — Arnold Palmer

I can only tell you one thing that I do know for sure, I am a dreamer. There are not many people that will recognize or want to recognize the fact that they are dreamers in their own life ... I continue to get up in the morning,enthusiastically, and go pick up a golf club with a thought that I can somewhere find that secret to making the cut. That's just an example, but it applies to other things in life, too, and that's the way I live and the way I think and the way I feel. — Arnold Palmer

Winning isn't everything, but wanting it is. — Arnold Palmer

Hit it hard, go find it and hit it hard again. — Arnold Palmer

I never met a winner who had a work ethic. Not somebody who says I have so much talent that naturally I won. — Arnold Palmer

I would never felt good if I hadn't experienced losing, because losing is part of your life. And it something that if I could teach people to understand that I think it could help them a lot. — Arnold Palmer

The whole secret to mastering the game of golf - and this applies to the beginner as well as the pro - is to cultivate a mental approach to the game that will enable you to shrug off the bad days, keep patient and know in your heart that sooner or later you will be back on top. — Arnold Palmer

I didn't get playing professional golf until I was 25 years old. And I always said that if I could make it work, I would play as long as I could walk. — Arnold Palmer

Great touch is often written off simply as 'talent,' which is crucial, because a good swing can take a golfer only so far. I've seen thousands of fantastic swings in my day, but that doesn't guarantee anything. — Arnold Palmer

Concentration, Confidence, Competitive urge, Capacity for enjoyment. — Arnold Palmer

Know how to win by following the rules — Arnold Palmer

Timing is everything in life and in golf. — Arnold Palmer

I enjoy the press. I understand their business. — Arnold Palmer

I've been wearing hearing aids for a long time. The technology available now is simply unbelievable. When I compare the new digital products to what we had 30 years ago, it's an amazing difference ... There was a time when I couldn't hear what most people said to me, most of the time. But with the hearing aids, I understand just about everything ... it really is very impressive. — Arnold Palmer

I am against making golf courses obsolete, going to the national Open and playing half the holes with a one-iron. — Arnold Palmer

First time I met Jack [Nicholas ] I had heard about his golf and prowess - I was playing in the Ohio amateur. — Arnold Palmer

Don't be ashamed to play safe. — Arnold Palmer

I have won the Australian, I won the British, all PGA championships, but I haven't won the PGA championship. — Arnold Palmer

Frankly, I'm not much for funerals unless it's absolutely an obligation. I don't feel it serves much of a purpose to go and see my friends just lying there, dead. I try to pay my respects to my friends when they're alive. — Arnold Palmer

I don't see myself as a full-time broadcaster. I've done some of it, and I enjoy it, but I don't think I should try to make a career out of it. — Arnold Palmer

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

Establish a system you have confidence in and rely on it when you get into tough situations. — Arnold Palmer

Concentration comes out of a combination of confidence and hunger. — Arnold Palmer

I received many years of good advice from my father - how to live, how to play, how to be a gentleman. — Arnold Palmer

From the beginning it was drilled into me that a golf course was a place where character fully reveals itself
both its strengths and its flaws. As a result, I learned early not only to fix my ball marks but also to congratulate an opponent on a good shot, avoid walking ahead of a player preparing to shoot, remain perfectly still when someone else was playing, and a score of other small courtesies that revealed, in my father's mind, one's abiding respect for the game. — Arnold Palmer

Golf never ceases to be a challenge, even when it really is just you and the ball out there and nobody else. — Arnold Palmer

Golf is a game of inches. The most important are the six inches between your ears. — Arnold Palmer

When you lose the ability to step up and hit the ball as hard and as far as you want, that also affects your ability to will the ball to go where you want it to go, if you know what I mean. — Arnold Palmer

Trouble is bad to get into but fun to get out of. If you're in trouble, eighty percent of the time there's a way out. If you can see the ball, you can probably hit it; and if you can hit it, you can move it; and if you can move it, you might be able to knock it in the hole. At least it's fun to try. — Arnold Palmer

I think a firm grip helps you control the club and prevents it from turning in your hands. Another thing about feel is, if you make a change in your grip, it takes time for your brain to adapt. — Arnold Palmer

I was national amateur champion. I was 24 years old. My father was there, and I couldn't wait to see him, and my mother. I went up and was waiting for all the accolades, and my mom was teary and happy and my dad looked at me and said, "Well, boy, you did good," and that was it. — Arnold Palmer

I would not have been able to accomplish a lot of what I did professionally had I not learned to fly myself and owned an airplane. For example, I was able to fly to an exhibition for the day and be back home in time for dinner. I never would have been able to do that flying commercially. — Arnold Palmer

My father started on this golf course at Latrobe when he was sixteen years old. He was digging ditches when they were building the golf course. — Arnold Palmer

I always said that if I have the perfect club then I should play the perfect game. — Arnold Palmer

I can remember back to my early tour days when some fellows didn't think I'd last too long. Nothing physical - they said it was my swing. Some said it was too much of a 'muscle swing' to stand the test of time. One fellow predicted I wouldn't get past 30 out there. — Arnold Palmer

Ever since I bought and started flying an airplane, it's been almost exclusively for business. I love to fly. It's a great joy to me. But rarely do I use it for any kind of pleasure, other than it is a pleasure to fly. — Arnold Palmer

It is not a dreamlike state, but the somehow insulated state, that a great musician achieves in a great performance. He's aware of where he is and what he's doing, but his mind is on the playing of the instrument with an internal sense of rightness. — Arnold Palmer

Feel is the most perplexing part of golf, and probably the most important. — Arnold Palmer

You must play boldly to win. — Arnold Palmer

We just became very good friends [ with Dwight Eisenhower ], we played golf, we played heart exhibitions. Then his doctor said he should not play golf anymore. — Arnold Palmer

One thing I've learned over time is, if you hit a golf ball into water, it won't float. — Arnold Palmer

I guess most of us would rather not discuss cancer because we are all afraid we might be told we have it. It's hard for people to even say the word, and that's the first obstacle you have to overcome when you are diagnosed with the disease. I think once you understand a little more about it ... I don't mean it gets any easier ... but I think you give it more in-depth thought about how you're going to deal with it. — Arnold Palmer

What separates great players from the good ones is not so much ability as brain power and emotional equilibrium. — Arnold Palmer

I would like to have won more golf tournaments. But I wouldn't sacrifice my life. I've enjoyed it. I'd love to do it again the same way. — Arnold Palmer

There's no question that the galleries still like to see birdies and eagles. If you take them all away, it takes some of the dramatics, the excitement of a golf tournament and we [people] don't want to do that. — Arnold Palmer

There's some good news, too, and the good news is that the players [finally] have become more aware of the fact that we [in golf] need sponsors, and we need the good will that is created by the players being, let's say, cooperative with the sponsors - meaning friendly. — Arnold Palmer

Every day I play golf, that's my goal. To break 70 the other way. To shoot 70 or better. — Arnold Palmer

When you get into competition and get under pressure, and get over that ball and are looking at it, and know you have to hit it, it is having that system to depend on to get that ball to where you want it to be. — Arnold Palmer

I've stated my position, and that is that we do not need a contraption to play the game of golf. I would hope that we'd play under one set of rules, and those rules would include a ban on the long putter hooked to the body in some way, shape or form. — Arnold Palmer

It is such a disappointment in American political reaction and actions. When some of our politicians are flying around the country in private airplanes all the time, using public services as their mode of private transportation, and then criticizing us who are in business. — Arnold Palmer

I suppose I could think of a lot of things to say about the fact that I still play. But I don't really need to. I can tell you this, that I enjoy it. I still enjoy it. I like to get out in the air and I like to walk and I like to do the things that are involved in playing golf. — Arnold Palmer

I played with [Dwight Eisenhower] on the day after I won the Masters at his request. We became everlasting friends. I was with him the day before he died at Walter Reed. — Arnold Palmer

When I was in college, I thought about becoming an attorney. But I wasn't smart enough; I hate being cooped up indoors; and I'm too nice a guy. — Arnold Palmer

You don't go to Palm Springs in the summer unless you're building a golf course. — Arnold Palmer

If the athlete is fair with the press, he deserves fairness back. — Arnold Palmer

That's another thing about my father. He made me very conscious of the fact I wasn't very good and I had to prove to him that I was good. And that hung with me, and I always wanted to play golf with him and show him. He said Never, Never tell anyone how good you are. Show them! — Arnold Palmer

I've always made a total effort, even when the odds seemed entirely against me. I never quit trying; I never felt that I didn't have a chance to win. — Arnold Palmer

I'm not much for sitting around and thinking about the past or talking about the past. What does that accomplish? If I can give young people something to think about, like the future, that's a better use of my time. — Arnold Palmer

Players need to remember they didn't make golf. Golf made them. — Arnold Palmer

I find myself getting associated with a lot of younger people in the game. I still enjoy playing with them, and I think they still enjoy playing with me. As long as I can stay competitive and have fun doing what I'm doing, I guess I'll keep doing it. — Arnold Palmer

Even before you step up to the ball, have a full battle plan for the hole worked out. — Arnold Palmer