Top 100 Jack Nicklaus Quotes
#1. I think you've all heard my story about my daughter and how we felt Children's Hospital saved her life when she was less than a year old. I won't go through all of the details of that.
Jack Nicklaus
#2. 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
#3. It's hard not to play golf that's up to Jack Nicklaus standards when you are Jack Nicklaus.
Jack Nicklaus
#4. 1960, I was 20 years old, and I was leading the U.S. Open. Now, I wasn't leading by several strokes, but I was leading the U.S. Open and playing with Ben Hogan, had a very good chance to win, nine holes to go, I was leading. I was still leading with six holes to play.
Jack Nicklaus
#5. 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.
Jack Nicklaus
#6. 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.
Jack Nicklaus
#7. 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
#8. Essentially, he has been retired since he was 21.
Jack Nicklaus
#9. I don't think you ever will yourself to win. I think you prepare yourself the best you can, get yourself in the best mindset you can get in, and go after it.
Jack Nicklaus
#10. 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
#11. Pressure is what you live for ... if you are going to be successful in life, you're going to have pressure.
Jack Nicklaus
#12. Oakmont is probably the premier - Oakmont and Augusta National are probably the top two set of greens in the country.
Jack Nicklaus
#13. Learn the fundamentals of the game and stick to them. Band-Aid remedies never last.
Jack Nicklaus
#14. 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
#15. I've never set up any golf course that would favor anybody. I try to make it exactly the opposite, which is what we did at Valhalla when we modernized it to accommodate the lengths players are hitting it today.
Jack Nicklaus
#16. I like trying to win. That's what golf is all about.
Jack Nicklaus
#17. Nobody ever remembers who finished second at anything.
Jack Nicklaus
#18. I always look to see what Arnold [Palmer] shot; it's a habit. We will always compete against each other.
Jack Nicklaus
#19. 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
#20. You don't think anything about age when you're playing [golf]. I mean, why would you ever think about that.
Jack Nicklaus
#21. Confidence is believing in your own ability, knowing what you have to do to win. My confidence was developed through preparation.
Jack Nicklaus
#22. I never thought about being No. 1. I just kept trying to be No. 1.
Jack Nicklaus
#23. 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
#24. One of the worst mistakes you can make in golf is trying to force the game.
Jack Nicklaus
#25. I don't believe in philosophies. I believe in fundamentals.
Jack Nicklaus
#26. The importance of my legacy is not the golf course, it's what my life is, and what my life is intended to be. The game of golf is a game. My family is my life.
Jack Nicklaus
#27. 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
#28. Sometimes the biggest problem is in your head. You've got to believe you can play a shot instead of wondering where your next bad shot is coming from.
Jack Nicklaus
#29. As long as I'm prepared, I always expect to win.
Jack Nicklaus
#30. 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
#31. If I have a weakness, it's probably ice cream. That's where I get lax, sloppy. I'll sneak into the refrigerator at night and take two or three bites and put it back. Butter pecan. Only two or three bites, but it shows.
Jack Nicklaus
#32. I've been fortunate over my career to make a little history on the 16th hole at Augusta National.
Jack Nicklaus
#33. Professional golf is the only sport where, if you win 20% of the time, you're the best.
Jack Nicklaus
#35. 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
#37. 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
#38. 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
#39. My ability to concentrate and work toward that goal has been my greatest asset.
Jack Nicklaus
#41. Achievement is largely the product of steadily raising one's level of aspiration and expectation.
Jack Nicklaus
#43. 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
#44. In 1979, when I was 39, I had such a bad year, I thought it was all over. Thankfully it wasn't.
Jack Nicklaus
#45. 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
#47. Through the years of experience I have found that air offers less resistance than dirt.
Jack Nicklaus
#48. There's a guy who won't be in contention. There's another one I don't have to worry about.
Jack Nicklaus
#49. I don't know if I'll ever do it again or not, but frankly I don't really care.
Jack Nicklaus
#50. The worse you're performing, the more you must work mentally and emotionally. The greatest and toughest art in golf is "playing badly well." All the true greats have been masters at it.
Jack Nicklaus
#51. The biggest rival I had in my career was me. I couldn't control Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Tom Watson or Lee Trevino. The only person I could control was me.
Jack Nicklaus
#52. 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
#53. Pete Egoscue has totally changed my life. Never have I experienced such complete pain relief as I have by following the Egoscue Method.
Jack Nicklaus
#54. 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
#55. I never went into a tournament or round of golf thinking I had to beat a certain player. I had to beat the golf course. If I prepared myself for a major, went in focused, and then beat the golf course, the rest took care of itself.
Jack Nicklaus
#58. Over the first three rounds you're playing the course. In the final round, if you're in contention, you're playing the man.
Jack Nicklaus
#59. 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.
Jack Nicklaus
#60. The golf course is always in good shape. Paul Latshaw does a reasonable job.
Jack Nicklaus
#61. 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
#62. 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
#63. 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
#64. I'm deadly serious even when I play tennis against my kids. I want to beat their brains out.
Jack Nicklaus
#65. If you're going to be a player people will remember, you have to win the Open at St. Andrews.
Jack Nicklaus
#66. The longer you play, the better chance the better player has of winning.
Jack Nicklaus
#67. A kid grows up a lot faster on the golf course. Golf teaches you how to behave.
Jack Nicklaus
#68. Golf was my vehicle to competition, and I can't play if I can't compete.
Jack Nicklaus
#69. When I want a long ball, I spin my hips faster.
Jack Nicklaus
#70. People only do their best at things they truly enjoy
Jack Nicklaus
#71. 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
#72. 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
#73. I'm tired of giving my best and not having it be good enough.
Jack Nicklaus
#74. 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
#76. 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.
Jack Nicklaus
#77. I'm more proud of the good rounds I've played while hitting the ball badly than of the great rounds while hitting the ball well. I understand my swing well enough to get myself through a tournament and win it. I've made it work.
Jack Nicklaus
#78. Who in the world remembers who won the 1975 Westchester Classic or the 1978 Western Open? Basically, the majors are the only comparison over time ... played on the same courses for generations. All the best players are always there.
Jack Nicklaus
#79. 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.
Jack Nicklaus
#80. Pursue what you love, what you are passionate about. Don't let somebody else dictate your life's path.
Jack Nicklaus
#81. Keeping the head still is golf's one universal, unarguable fundamental.
Jack Nicklaus
#82. Resolve never to quit, never to give up, no matter what the situation.
Jack Nicklaus
#83. 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
#84. 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
#86. The Senior Tour is a good concept, although frankly I'm not astounded at its continued success. It gives a lot of guys an opportunity to extend their careers.
Jack Nicklaus
#87. Public appearances are a headache. I hold mine down to a minimum.
Jack Nicklaus
#88. Reflection is a scene that I will cherish forever.
Jack Nicklaus
#89. If I had only one more round to play, I would choose to play it at Pebble Beach. I've loved this course from the first time I saw it. It's possibly the best in the world.
Jack Nicklaus
#90. We all would like to struggle like Tiger is struggling.
Jack Nicklaus
#91. 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
#92. Augusta National is a young man's golf course, and you really need a young man's nerves to play on it.
Jack Nicklaus
#93. It's a great sense of accomplishment when you can take something and really think it's really tough, and then all of a sudden you conquer it. That makes you feel pretty good.
Jack Nicklaus
#95. He has the finest, fundamentally sound golf swing I've ever seen.
Jack Nicklaus
#96. 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
#97. Complacency is a continuous struggle that we all have to fight.
Jack Nicklaus
#99. 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
#100. How people keep correcting us when we are young! There is always some bad habit or other they tell us we ought to get over. Yet most bad habits are tools to help us through life.
Jack Nicklaus
Famous Authors
Popular Topics
Scroll to Top
