Jack Nicklaus Quotes & Sayings
Enjoy the top 100 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Jack Nicklaus.
Famous Quotes By Jack Nicklaus
I knew that if I kept the pressure on and didn't do anything stupid I would probably win. — Jack Nicklaus
Bob Ford is a great guy. He's a great friend. He's done a great job at Oakmont and Seminole. He's a very quiet man. He doesn't get in the middle of everything, but he understands what a nice job he's done at both places. — Jack Nicklaus
Grand Haven will challenge the skilled player yet, because of some width to the holes, it also will be a fun course that the average player can enjoy. — Jack Nicklaus
Oakmont is probably the premier - Oakmont and Augusta National are probably the top two set of greens in the country. — Jack Nicklaus
Pressure is what you live for ... if you are going to be successful in life, you're going to have pressure. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
I learned early in my career, where you get so wrapped up and so excited, that all of a sudden you don't think. So I worked very hard to keep myself suppressed. And that's one of the reasons I wasn't gregarious with the gallery. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
At a certain point in the [golf] tournament, it becomes a match play event and becomes a match play event against who is on the leaderboard, so you have to know who is there to do what you're going to try to do. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
I have said many times that most people work all their life to retire to play golf, while I played golf all my life to retire to work. I enjoy working. It has kept me young and on the move, and I have had a good time with it. — Jack Nicklaus
Success depends almost entirely on how effectively you learn to manage the game's two ultimate adversaries: the course and yourself. — Jack Nicklaus
Pursue what you love, what you are passionate about. Don't let somebody else dictate your life's path. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
The game is meant to be fun. — Jack Nicklaus
Concentration is a fine antidote to anxiety. — Jack Nicklaus
Don't be too proud to take lessons. I'm not. — Jack Nicklaus
This is a game. That's all it is. It's not a war. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
I don't know if I'll ever do it again or not, but frankly I don't really care. — Jack Nicklaus
Why are we building golf courses? Because we enjoy being outside, bringing man and nature together. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
Jones is the greatest golfer who ever lived and probably ever will live. That's my goal. Bobby Jones. It's the only goal. — Jack Nicklaus
To sink a six-foot putt with thirty million people looking over your shoulder, convince yourself that, if you miss it, you will be embarrassed and poor. — Jack Nicklaus
If you want to hit it farther, hit it better. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
If I had one golf course, from a design standpoint, one that I really love, it would probably be Pinehurst. There's a totally tree-lined golf course where trees are not a part of the strategy. — Jack Nicklaus
Before every shot, I go to the movies — Jack Nicklaus
I've said many times before that Pebble Beach is a wonderful thinking-man's golf course. That is why it is such a great U.S. Open venue. — Jack Nicklaus
Reflection is a scene that I will cherish forever. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
It's hard not to play golf that's up to Jack Nicklaus standards when you are Jack Nicklaus. — Jack Nicklaus
Arnold's place in history will be as the man who took golf from being a game for the few to a sport for the masses. He was the catalyst who made that happen. — Jack Nicklaus
It takes hundreds of good golf shots to gain confidence, but only one bad one to lose it. — Jack Nicklaus
When the British Open is in Scotland, there's something special about it. And when it's at St. Andrews, it's even greater. — Jack Nicklaus
I don't believe in luck. Not in golf, anyway. There are good bounces and bad bounces, sure, but the ball is round and so is the hole. If you find yourself in a position where you hope for luck to pull you through, you're in serious trouble. — Jack Nicklaus
Ben Hogan was not really a big hitter. He was long enough. But Ben Hogan today? Ben Hogan today could not compete at Augusta because he did not have the massive length to compete against the long hitters. Power was always an issue at Augusta, but never so dominant that you couldn't play it. — Jack Nicklaus
Crises are part of life. Everybody has to face them, and it doesn't make any difference what the crisis is. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
There's a guy who won't be in contention. There's another one I don't have to worry about. — Jack Nicklaus
Whether it's pool or Ping Pong, I can't stand to have my kids beat me. Especially Ping Pong! And when they beat me, they just needle the devil out of me. That's fine. I'd rather have that than let them win a shallow victory. — Jack Nicklaus
Well, the biggest rival I had in my career was me. — Jack Nicklaus
My best friend gave me the best advice
He said each day's a gift and not a given right
Leave no stone unturned, leave your fears behind — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
I never missed a putt in my mind. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
There are interesting times. The game is more fun when you are experimenting. One day yuor great, the next day scatterlog. But your learning. No that's not right. I probably have forgotten more about golf than I will ever learn. What you do is remember some of the things you thought you would never forget. — Jack Nicklaus
Oakmont, you've got to be playing slope. — Jack Nicklaus
I guess that's why they call it Hell. — Jack Nicklaus
I love design in general, the creativity. Whether it is golf courses, my apparel line, ads we do or our business with AriZona, design is fun. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
Golfers have a tendency to be very masochistic. They like to punish themselves for some reason. A lot of them like tough courses. — Jack Nicklaus
Temper is the one thing you can't get rid of by losing it. — Jack Nicklaus
I think that Pebble Beach is my favorite golf course to go to. I think Augusta is my favorite place to go play golf. — Jack Nicklaus
I've been fortunate over my career to make a little history on the 16th hole at Augusta National. — Jack Nicklaus
A perfectly straight shot with a big club is a fluke. — Jack Nicklaus
Resolve never to quit, never to give up, no matter what the situation. — Jack Nicklaus
Augusta National is a young man's golf course, and you really need a young man's nerves to play on it. — Jack Nicklaus
I think in my case winning fans came as a result of winning tournaments. Certainly, I didn't have too many supporters when I came on Tour. I didn't look like an athlete, I was overweight, had a crew cut, baggy clothes and on top of that I didn't smile much. I was very serious about my game, literally and figuratively the heavy. — Jack Nicklaus
As long as I'm prepared, I always expect to win. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
My ability to concentrate and work toward that goal has been my greatest asset. — Jack Nicklaus
The holes are numbered. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
I don't really have a problem saying good-bye to things. All things come to an end. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
I'm probably the only bottom-heavy golfer in the country. — Jack Nicklaus
Any golfer worth his salt has to cross the sea and try to win the British Open. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
The longer you play, the better chance the better player has of winning. — Jack Nicklaus
There are always new places to go fishing. For any fisherman, there's always a new place, always a new horizon. — Jack Nicklaus
Tom Watson, Tom Watson blew, what, two PGA Championships and a U.S. Open. Did it destroy his life? No, it didn't destroy his life. He learned from it. He went on to win a lot of major championships and obviously became one of the world's great players. — Jack Nicklaus
The way I pack is I look at how long I'll be gone and I pack day for day. If I'm going on a three-day fishing trip, I plot each day. I put most of that in a little bag. If I'm going from there to work on golf courses for a few days, I plot that trip. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
I don't think you would have missed that putt, but in these circumstances, I would never give you the opportunity. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
The fact is, I diet every day of my life. I have to work at it. But I diet so I can pig out. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
I never worried about money, except that I knew that all I had to worry about was golf. As long as I could play, I was going to make money. — Jack Nicklaus
I don't think about winning the Masters as part of the slam. You want to win the Masters because of what it means to the game. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
I never used golf as a job. I used it as a game. I always thought if I played the game well, my financial rewards would be there, but it came from, because I played well. But I had to play well to get the financial rewards. — Jack Nicklaus
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. — Jack Nicklaus
He has the finest, fundamentally sound golf swing I've ever seen. — Jack Nicklaus