Winning In Golf Quotes & Sayings

We don't have to do a bunch of things to figure out how to win the Ryder Cup. Just go play golf ... I'm a little bit too casual probably about a lot of things, but you can't force good play. Good play comes from good hard work and actually being prepared to play, not being forced to play. — Jack Nicklaus

Placing the ball in the right position for the next shot is eighty percent of winning golf. — Ben Hogan

Golf gives no margin: either you win or you fail. You cannot hedge; you cannot bluff; you cannot give a stop order. One chance is given you, and you hit or miss. There is nothing more rigid in life. And it is this ultra and extreme rigidity that makes golf so intensely interesting. — Arnold Haultain

The winner of this tournament doesn't just win a major. He become a part of the history of the game. — Phil Mickelson

Sometimes not getting what you want is a brilliant stroke of luck. — Lorii Myers

Golf is not a game of great shots. It's a game of most accurate misses. The people who win make the smallest mistakes. — Gene Littler

There's kind of an unwritten rule, Don't call your captain out at a Ryder Cup, win, loss or draw, you just don't. — Graeme McDowell

I think it's more than whether or not you win or lose. It's having that opportunity on that final round, final nine, to come down the stretch with a chance to win. — Phil Mickelson

When I first came on tour, I was playing for money. Now I'm playing to win golf tournaments and the money is more than I ever dreamed I could make. — Annika Sorenstam

It's hard to tell who's going to win this week, but it probably won't be a big, fat guy. — David Feherty

I told my caddie today that I am in the position that I want to be in. That this is what I have been waiting for, to win my tenth victory. I said that I am going to do everything that I can do today and that nothing is going to stop me. — Annika Sorenstam

Bing Crosby and I play a lot of golf together and I have a small course at my place where we often play for side stakes. The only troulbe is that when I win, I always have to engage and attorney before I can draw the money. — Bob Hope

You win all the Tucsons, all the Kemps, all the Iron City Opens you can, nobody remembers. You win a Masters, nobody ever forgets — Bob Goalby

I don't play the sport for fame. I don't try to win tournaments for fame. I don't do any of that. It's just me. I'm just Bubba. I goof around. I joke around. I just want to be me and play golf. — Bubba Watson

A lot of people are afraid of winning. I was afraid I might not win. — Arnold Palmer

He's been a top player for the last 10 years, and we all work on our swings, we all change things. We keep working and then we're trying to get better, and sometimes you get worse trying to get better. You've just got to give it some time, be patient for it to turn around, and when it does turn around, you feel like you can start winning again. — Ernie Els

How about that amigo? I just come over to see my friends and I win ze bloody championship. — Roberto De Vicenzo

Though he never articulated it, I know Tiger believed in the idea of the Package. It went along with the sense of destiny his father had passed to him - that he was put on this earth to do something extraordinary with his special qualities, to "let the legend grow."
But those qualities, foremost among them an extraordinary ability to focus and stay calm under pressure, also included selfishness, obsessiveness, stubbornness, coldness, ruthlessness, pettiness, and cheapness.
When they were all at work in the competitive arena, they helped him win. And winning gave him permission to remain a flawed and in some ways immature person. — Hank Haney

It is never easy to win but it is a lot easier to win when you play well. The key is winning golf tournaments when you are not playing so well. Managing your game is something that I feel that I am still learning to do. — Rory McIlroy

I've known the thrill of winning a tough ball game and of winning a golf match on the last hole. But to me the biggest thrill is to win the big one - the spiritual battle of life. — Billy Graham

There is not a lot of money in competition dancing. There never has been; it's all about winning the trophies, really. It's not like golf. — Anton Du Beke

Every few years, in the world of sport, someone ascends to the most rarefied of all levels - the one at which it becomes news not when they win, but when they lose. It must have been like that in the early Fifties, when a tubby Italian called Alberto Ascari was stitching together nine Grand Prix wins in a row, a record not even Fangio, Clark or Senna could match. Or when the great Real Madrid side of Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas won the first five European Cup finals, between 1956 and 1960. Or when Martina Navratilova dominated Wimbledon's Centre Court, winning nine ladies' singles titles in thirteen years. The current Australian cricket team is in just such a run at present, having just completed nine consecutive victories, putting them four wins away from establishing an all-time record. And then there is Tiger Woods. — Richard Williams

I'm helpless in post-round, hole-by-hole interviews. I can't take you through most of the holes of winning the Players Championship, the U.S. Amateur or Ryder Cup matches. It's like golf amnesia. — Matt Kuchar

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

No golfer ever gets so consistently good that he can't use some constructive advice. No matter how many trophies he may win, he can't analyze and remedy his own faults. — Byron Nelson

I don't know if I even have an aura, man. I just try to win. — Tiger Woods

It's easy at times to win golf tournaments and shoot 59, and sometimes it's hard to post an 85. — David Duval

George W. Bush loves golf because it's like the election
low score wins. — Jay Leno

That little boy is driving well and he's putting well. He's doing everything it takes to win. So, you know what you guys do when he gets in here? You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not serve fried chicken next year. Got it?" ... "or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve." — Fuzzy Zoeller

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

If I had won ... all those other championships, my life might be totally different, but I didn't win. It's not going to affect my life. — Greg Norman

I learn teaching from teachers. I learn golf from golfers. I learn winning from coaches. — Harvey Penick

The life of a professional golfer is precarious at best. Win, and they carry you to the clubhouse on their shoulders. Lose, and you pay the caddies in the dark. — Gene Sarazen

I am absolutely delighted to have come second. Who cares about winning when you can be second? I love being runner-up. — Tom Weiskopf

When Nicklaus plays wells well, he wins. When he plays badly, he finishes second. When he plays terribly, he finishes third. — Johnny Miller

You learn to accept defeat graciously in golf. Unlike other sports, the game itself is a constant opponent. It never stops. A golfer is fortunate to win a few times. We spend our whole lives trying to conquer something, and we lose a lot more than we win. — Ben Crenshaw

In order to win, you must play your best golf when you need it most, and play your sloppy stuff when you can afford it. I shall not attempt to explain how you achieve this happy timing. — Bobby Jones

Golf's a funny game. You can be playing poorly and then go and win a tournament. — Karrie Webb

Marathon running, like golf, is a game for players, not winners. That is why Callaway sells golf clubs and Nike sells running shoes. But running is unique in that the world's best racers are on the same course, at the same time, as amateurs, who have as much chance of winning as your average weekend warrior would scoring a touchdown in the NFL. — Hunter S. Thompson

Nobody ever wins the National Open. Somebody loses it. — Bobby Jones

Hagen said that no-one remembers who finished second. But they still ask me if I ever think about that putt I missed to win the 1970 Open at St. Andrews. I tell them that some times it doesn't cross my mind for a full five minutes. — Doug Sanders

Srinagar is a medieval city dying in a modern war. It is empty streets, locked shops, angry soldiers and boys with stones. It is several thousand military bunkers, four golf courses, and three book-shops. It is wily politicians repeating their lies about war and peace to television cameras and small crowds gathered by the promise of an elusive job or a daily fee of a few hundred rupees. It is stopping at sidewalks and traffic lights when the convoys of rulers and their patrons in armored cars, secured by machine guns, rumble on broken roads. It is staring back or looking away, resigned. Srinagar is never winning and never being defeated. — Basharat Peer

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

[Jack Nicklaus] was the first to bring in course management. He could go to a course and tell you within one stroke what was going to win. He used to set his sights on that because he could shoot it. He was the only player I know who, if he decided he wanted to win a tournament, could go out and do it. No one will ever be as popular as Arnold Palmer and no one will ever come close to Jack as a player. — Lee Trevino

I love to play to win. — Tiger Woods

In the background, while you crochet and golf and browse cat videos, science is fighting against your stupidity. No other human enterprise is fighting as hard, or at least not fighting and winning. — David McRaney

This is a game of misses. The guy who misses the best is going to win. — Ben Hogan

The great thing about my two lives is I love them both. I'm very ambitious and nothing gets in the way of me practising and concentrating on winning golf tournaments. But then I come home and get back to normality. — Rory McIlroy

And you fathers, are you so busy making a living, playing golf, bowling, hunting, that you do not have time to talk to your boys and hold them close to you and win their confidence? Or do you brush them off, so that they dare not come and talk about these things with you? — Spencer W. Kimball

If we had to play Augusta National in one hour, the best athlete would win the Masters. But as it is, they give us time to hang ourselves. Every swing is a 'thought shot'. So instead of the best athlete, you end up with the best thinker as the winner. — Joe Inman

You count a man's U.S. Amateur titles after he starts winning professional majors. That's something any intelligent golf writer with a sense of history is supposed to know. — Dan Jenkins

It's been 18 months since I won on The European Tour and to win the flagship event, I could not have asked for any more. — Rory McIlroy

Now that I am no longer President, I find I can no longer win every game of golf I play. — George H. W. Bush

I've always said the players don't build up rivalries themselves, people from the outside build up the rivalries. I just want to play good golf. I want to try and keep winning golf tournaments. — Rory McIlroy

The world's No. 1 tennis player spends 90 percent of his time winning, while the world's No. 1 golfer spends 90 percent of his time losing. Golfers are great losers. — David Feherty

My boyfriend loves golf and he is good at it but I am not that great at it. It drives me nuts, but I'm super competitive and I always want to win. — Danica Patrick

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. — Jack Nicklaus

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

I suppose I'm happy when I know I've given a horse a good ride, no matter where it is. I like playing golf in the summer; I'm happy when I hit a good shot, and I enjoy watching Arsenal playing beautiful football, but overall I can't believe you can be happy when you're not winning. I honestly can't accept that. — Tony McCoy

Who can say I have a bad swing? The only thing that matters in golf is the score you put on the board. You don't have to look pretty out there, you have to win. Look at my record and tell me who has a better swing than mine. — Lee Trevino