Top 160 Jack Nicklaus Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “I don’t think you would have missed that putt, but in these circumstances, I would never give you the opportunity.”

— Jack Nicklaus

52. “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

53. “Keeping the head still is golf’s one universal, unarguable fundamental.”

— Jack Nicklaus

54. “People only do their best at things they truly enjoy.”

— Jack Nicklaus

55. “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

56. “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

57. “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

58. “Golf is not, and never has been, a fair game.”

— Jack Nicklaus

59. “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

60. “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

61. “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

62. “Confidence is believing in your own ability, knowing what you have to do to win. My confidence was developed through preparation.”

— Jack Nicklaus

63. “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

64. “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

65. “As long as I’m prepared, I always expect to win.”

— Jack Nicklaus

66. “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

67. “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

68. “If you’re going to be a player people will remember, you have to win the Open at St. Andrews.”

— Jack Nicklaus

69. “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

70. “The golf course is always in good shape. Paul Latshaw does a reasonable job.”

— Jack Nicklaus

71. “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

72. “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

73. “One of the worst mistakes you can make in golf is trying to force the game.”

— Jack Nicklaus

74. “Why are we building golf courses? Because we enjoy being outside, bringing man and nature together.”

— Jack Nicklaus

75. “He has the finest, fundamentally sound golf swing I’ve ever seen.”

— Jack Nicklaus

76. “Any golfer worth his salt has to cross the sea and try to win the British Open.”

— Jack Nicklaus

77. “Golf was my vehicle to competition, and I can’t play if I can’t compete.”

— Jack Nicklaus

78. “There’s a guy who won’t be in contention. There’s another one I don’t have to worry about.”

— Jack Nicklaus

79. “I like to catch fish and release them. I probably haven’t killed a fish that I’ve caught in sport fishing for 20 years. No reason to kill it. You know, just take it and release it.”

— Jack Nicklaus

80. “The holes are numbered.”

— Jack Nicklaus

81. “It’s hard not to play golf that’s up to Jack Nicklaus standards when you are Jack Nicklaus.”

— Jack Nicklaus

82. “I always practice as I intend to play.”

— Jack Nicklaus

83. “Essentially, he has been retired since he was 21.”

— Jack Nicklaus

84. “Well, the biggest rival I had in my career was me.”

— Jack Nicklaus

85. “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

86. “Public appearances are a headache. I hold mine down to a minimum.”

— Jack Nicklaus

87. “I thoroughly enjoy working with kids, whether it’s The First Tee or the lesson tee with my grandkids.”

— Jack Nicklaus

88. “Professional golf is the only sport where, if you win 20% of the time, you’re the best.”

— Jack Nicklaus

89. “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

90. “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

91. “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

92. “I don’t really have a problem saying good-bye to things. All things come to an end.”

— Jack Nicklaus

93. “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

94. “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

95. “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

96. “You have to love something and have a passion for it to be disciplined. My commitment was purely to golf.”

— Jack Nicklaus

97. “Reflection is a scene that I will cherish forever.”

— Jack Nicklaus

98. “I don’t play much golf anymore. I can’t – if I break 80, I’m doing pretty well.”

— Jack Nicklaus

99. “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

100. “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