Jack Nicklaus Quotes

Golf is not and never has been a fair game.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

The best way to cope with trouble is to stay out of it as much as possible.

Sometimes, I’m an ogre. I can be short. I’ll walk into the office some days and I’ve gotten up on the wrong side of the bed, and everybody knows it. I’m a perfectionist. I like to be organized, and I like to get everything done today.

See, as much as I love the game, golf was my vehicle to competition. And I love to compete.

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

Pete Dye introduced me to golf course design back in the 1960’s. He came to my hometown Columbus, Ohio to work on The Golf Club.

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.

Naturally it is nice to be widely known for worthwhile achievements, but it forces you to do many things which you don’t like to do and these things take up time you want for other things.

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.

In 1979, when I was 39, I had such a bad year, I thought it was all over. Thankfully it wasn’t.

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.

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.