Top 35 Gary Player Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “The harder you work, the luckier you get.”

— Gary Player

Featured in: Inspirational Quotes for Work, Performance Quotes, Work Ethic Quotes, Preparation Quotes, Quotes About Trying

2. “The more I work and practice, the luckier I seem to get.”

— Gary Player

3. “A strong mind is one of the key components that separates the great from the good.”

— Gary Player

4. “To succeed in life one must have determination and must be prepared to suffer during the process. If one isn’t prepared to suffer during adversities, I don’t really see how he can be successful.”

— Gary Player

5. “We create success or failure on the course primarily by our thoughts.”

— Gary Player

6. “Simply by making the effort to start something, you will be miles ahead of almost everyone else.”

— Gary Player

7. “Enjoy the game. Happy golf is good golf.”

— Gary Player

8. “I try to work with God as a partner.”

— Gary Player

9. “I am tired of all these golfers who are happy with second place. The only one who will like you if you come in second place is your wife and your dog. And that is only if you have a good wife and a good dog.”

— Gary Player

10. “It’s a marriage. If I had to choose between my wife and my putter, well, I’d miss her.”

— Gary Player

11. “Golf is a puzzle without an answer. I’ve played the game for 40 years and I still haven’t the slightest idea how to play.”

— Gary Player

12. “Golf is a puzzle without an answer.”

— Gary Player

13. “I’ve studied golf for almost 50 years now and know a hell of a lot about nothing.”

— Gary Player

14. “The pressure gets worse the older you get. The hole starts to look the size of a Bayer aspirin.”

— Gary Player

15. “If there’s a golf course in heaven, I hope it’s like Augusta National. I just don’t want an early tee time.”

— Gary Player

16. “I rarely eat red meat and only occasionally eat fish. Plant based foods are my main source of nutrition along with nuts, fruits, brown breads and grains.”

— Gary Player

17. “When travelling, I make a point of eating a proper diet no matter where I am in the world. It is getting much easier to eat a vegetarian or vegan based diet.”

— Gary Player

18. “I don’t have any hesitation saying I’ve traveled more miles than any human being who ever lived. I’ve been doing it for 60 years.”

— Gary Player

19. “When you play the game for fun, it’s fun. When you play it for a living, it’s a game of sorrows.”

— Gary Player

20. “You must work very hard to become a natural golfer.”

— Gary Player

21. “Each shot is important.”

— Gary Player

22. “I always said that if they have a golf course like this in heaven, I want to be the head pro.”

— Gary Player

23. “If you are going to keep company with me, don’t embarrass me.”

— Gary Player

24. “If you think your hands are more important in your golf swing than your legs, try walking a hole on your hands.”

— Gary Player

25. “The ideal build for a golfer would be strong hands, big forearms, thin neck, big thighs and a flat chest. He’d look like Popeye.”

— Gary Player

26. “You can always speak with great authority on how well you played today, but never on how you’ll play tomorrow.”

— Gary Player

27. “There is absolutely nothing humorous at the Masters. Here, small dogs do not bark and babies do not cry.”

— Gary Player

28. “The player who expects a lesson to ‘take’ without subsequent practice just isn’t being honest with himself or fair to his professional.”

— Gary Player

29. “That loss was to breed an independence, a toughness of spirit, and an awareness of adversity and discipline that have never left me,.”

— Gary Player

30. “But golf being an international game and everybody loving the game the way they do, if you want to spread the game of golf, it’s good that you have great competition.”

— Gary Player

31. “Wind is part of the British Open. It is an examination and it took me a long time to pass the examination. Eighty per cent of the fellows out there have not passed the test.”

— Gary Player

32. “I think that if people would be willing to grow some of their own food or eat locally grown organic foods on a regular basis we could significantly decrease the amount of harmful chemicals we pump into our soil every day.”

— Gary Player

33. “I’ve traveled more than any human being who’s ever lived.”

— Gary Player

34. “Perhaps the most important thing I can tell you about equipment is to experiment and keep an open mind.”

— Gary Player

35. “I wish I could put a patent on that thing. That was so straight I had to lean over sideways to see the flag!”

— Gary Player

36. “The first time I ever saw Arnold Palmer, I said, There’s a star. The first time I saw Jack Nicklaus, I said, Superstar. I feel the same way about Tiger Woods.”

— Gary Player

37. “When a rules man gives you a ruling, that’s it. Amen.”

— Gary Player

38. “The closer you can live to being a vegetarian the better.”

— Gary Player

39. “In my mind what Gary has done in the pages that follow is to tell people the honest truth – that one of the greatest challenges in life is to admit to yourself that you want something badly, dare to believe you can do it, and then go out and get yourself to do whatever it is you need to do to get whatever it is that you want. It is easy to want something and then be overcome by the fear that no matter how hard you work, you will never get what you want.”

— Gary Player