Sam Snead Quotes & Sayings

When I ask you what club to use, look the other way and don't answer. — Sam Snead

That little white ball is always staring back at you, daring you to make a mistake. — Sam Snead

Correct one fault at a time. Concentrate on the one fault you want to overcome. — Sam Snead

When I swing at a golf ball right, my mind is blank and my body is loose as a goose. — Sam Snead

Just have a Coke or something and watch the boys go past. — Sam Snead

I've been on some fairways that are as good as the greens we putted on back then. We had crab grass. I remember one green where I putted through ants. — Sam Snead

Grip the club as if you were holding a baby bird. — Sam Snead

There are no short hitters on the tour anymore - just long and unbelievably long. — Sam Snead

First and fore-most, you must have confidence. Your second mental problem is concentration. Think the shot through in advance before you address the ball. Draw a mental image of where you want it to go and then eliminate everything else from your mind, except how you are going to get the ball into that preferred spot. — Sam Snead

A bad putter is like a bad apple in a barrel. First, it turns your chipping game sour. Then it begins to eat into your irons and finally it just cleans the head off your driver. — Sam Snead

Golf is played with the arms. — Sam Snead

Practice your swing until it becomes a habit of mind and muscle. — Sam Snead

If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they'd starve to death. — Sam Snead

The only place that's holier than St. Andrews is Westminster Abbey. — Sam Snead

Of all the hazards, fear is the worst. — Sam Snead

The mark of a great player is in his ability to come back. The great champions have all come back from defeat. — Sam Snead

Nobody asked how you looked, just what you shot. — Sam Snead

But, no, I don't feel my career has not been fulfilled because I didn't win the US Open. It's like the guy said: You going to crucify a man because he missed a putt to win a tournament? Does a three-foot putt mean his whole life? Another guy said, well, he couldn't win the big one. Well, Jesus, what do you call those others? What's big and what's small? — Sam Snead

There is an old saying: if a man comes home with sand in his cuffs and cockleburs in his pants, don't ask him what he shot. — Sam Snead

The only reason I ever played golf in the first place was so I could afford to hunt and fish. — Sam Snead

'You know Bobby, when I was your age I'd drive the ball right over those trees at the corner.' Feeling challenged Mr. Cole hit a big driver right into those big trees. Snead then said 'Of course, when I was your age, those trees were only 10 feet high.' — Sam Snead

Keep close count of your nickels and dimes, stay away from whiskey, and never concede a putt. — Sam Snead

I shot a wild elephant in Africa thirty yards from me, and it didn't hit the ground until it was right at my feet. I wasn't a bit scared. But a four foot putt scares me to death. — Sam Snead

I give the ball some sweet talk. I tell it that this isn't going to hurt a bit. I'm a friend and all I'm going to do is give it a nice little ride. — Sam Snead

What abandoned course is that? — Sam Snead

Playing golf is like eating. It's something which has to come naturally. — Sam Snead

Most people who play golf have one big trouble: they think too much. To get any real mileage out of this game you've got to sit on your imagination. — Sam Snead

If I had cleared the trees and drove the green, it would've been a great shot. — Sam Snead

Golf course architects make me sick. They can't play themselves, so they rig the courses so nobody else can play either. — Sam Snead

Don't just play your way around the course. Think your way around way around the course. — Sam Snead

You've just one problem. You stand too close to the ball after you've hit it. — Sam Snead

These greens are so fast I have to hold my putter over the ball and hit it with the shadow. — Sam Snead

I looked like a monkey trying to wrestle a football. — Sam Snead

Forget your opponents; always play against par. — Sam Snead

You have more potential than you think. — Sam Snead

I'd say that golf is about 75% mental. If your state of mind gets out of kilter, you're worse off than a tomcat floating on a log. — Sam Snead

What did I want with prestige? The British Open paid the winner $600 in American money. A man would have to be two hundred years old at that rate to retire from golf. — Sam Snead

The fairways were so narrow you had to walk down them single file. — Sam Snead

But you don't have to go up in the stands and play your foul balls. I do. — Sam Snead

Never let up. The more you can win by, the more doubts you put in the other players' minds the next time out. — Sam Snead

To be consistently effective, you must put a certain distance between yourself and what happens to you on the golf course. This is not indifference, it's detachment. — Sam Snead

I've gotten rid of the yips four times but they hang in there. You know those two-foot downhill putts with a break? I'd rather see a rattlesnake. — Sam Snead

Those who go along get along. — Sam Snead

I hope I'll never get too old to want to take part in this event, and I don't think I will ever age that much. — Sam Snead

Golf tip: Lay off for three weeks and then quit for good. — Sam Snead

Golf got complicated when I had to wear shoes and begin thinking about what I was doing. — Sam Snead

The fact that Slammin' Sammy couldn't win the Open made it all the more valuable for the players that did win. Gave it a special quality. I'd say a part of the sheen on that trophy comes from my sweat. — Sam Snead

Thinking instead of acting is the number one golf disease. — Sam Snead

The only thing I fear on a golf course is lightning ... and Ben Hogan. — Sam Snead

No matter what happens - never give up a hole ... In tossing in your cards after a bad beginning you also undermine your whole game, because to quit between tee and green is more habit-forming than drinking a highball before breakfast. — Sam Snead

Make the basic shot-making decision early, clearly and firmly, and then ritualize all the necessary acts of preparation. — Sam Snead

You can't go into a shop and buy a good game of golf. — Sam Snead

Practice puts brains in your muscles. — Sam Snead

I was a better player at 50 than I was at 30. — Sam Snead

To win,you must have both talent an desire- but desire first. — Sam Snead

If I could have shot 69 in the last round every time, I would have won nine U.S. Opens. Nine! — Sam Snead

Good golfing temperament falls between taking it with a grin or shrug and throwing a fit. — Sam Snead

In golf, as in life, you get out of it what you put into it. — Sam Snead

Over the years I've studied the habits of golfers. I know what to look for. Watch their eyes. Fear shows up when there is an enlargement of the pupils. Big pupils lead to big scores. — Sam Snead

I believe in destiny ... what's going to be is going to be. If I'm going to win, I'm going to win ... I don't give a damn what the other guy shoots. I'm going to win if it's my turn. — Sam Snead

Until you play it, St. Andrews looks like the sort of real estate you couldn't give away. — Sam Snead

Of the mental hazards, being scared is the worst. When you get scared, you get tense. — Sam Snead