Arnold Palmer
Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated; it satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect. It is at the same time rewarding and maddening - and it is without a doubt the greatest game mankind has ever invented.Collection: Time
Putting is like wisdom - partly a natural gift and partly the accumulation of experience.Collection: Experience
As my father taught me, and he drove home that point, he said, 'Just remember something. You don't need to tell anybody how good you are. You show them how good you are.' And he drove that home with me. So I learned early not to brag about how good I was or what I could do but let my game take that away and show them that I could play well enough.Collection: Home
What other people may find in poetry or art museums, I find in the flight of a good drive.Collection: Good
Success in golf depends less on strength of body than upon strength of mind and character.Collection: Success
I've always made a total effort, even when the odds seemed entirely against me. I never quit trying; I never felt that I didn't have a chance to win.Collection: Chance
The road to success is always under construction.Collection: Success
I never quit trying. I never felt that I didn't have a chance to win.Collection: Chance
Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you.
The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.
I have a tip that can take 5 strokes off anyone's golf game. It's called an eraser.
Concentration comes out of a combination of confidence and hunger.
Winning isn't everything, but wanting it is.
Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated.
I've stated my position, and that is we do not need a contraption to play the game of golf. I would hope that we'd play under one set of rules, and those rules would include a ban on the long putter hooked to the body in some way, shape or form.
I never rooted against an opponent, but I never rooted for him either.
You don't go to Palm Springs in the summer unless you're building a golf course.
There is no king of golf. Never has been, never will be. Golf is the most democratic game on Earth... It punishes and exalts us all with splendid equal opportunity.
Why hit a conservative shot? When you miss it, you are in just as much trouble as when you miss a bold one.
You must play boldly to win.
The secret of concentration is the secret of self-discovery. You reach inside yourself to discover your personal resources, and what it takes to match them to the challenge.
We can argue about major championships and whether Tiger will ever surpass Jack's 18 majors, but what can't be argued is this: Tiger Woods is the most dominant, most skilled player we've ever seen.
I think a firm grip helps you control the club and prevents it from turning in your hands. Another thing about feel is, if you make a change in your grip, it takes time for your brain to adapt.
I never heard Jack Nicklaus say, 'I'm a great player,' or Tiger Woods, as a matter of fact. They just get out and do it. And I think that's far more appealing... than talking about how good you are.
I grew up in poverty on the edge of a golf course. I saw how people lived on the other side of the tracks, the upper crust and the WASPs at the country club. We had chickens and pigs in our yards. We butchered every year. I'll never forget those things.
I have a tip that will take five strokes off anyone's golf game. It's called an eraser.
Great touch is often written off simply as 'talent,' which is crucial, because a good swing can take a golfer only so far. I've seen thousands of fantastic swings in my day, but that doesn't guarantee anything.
I started flying because I had a fear of it early on. I figured if I learned to fly, I would understand better what was happening and started taking lessons in the late 1950's, once I had made some money on tour.
It is not a dreamlike state, but the somehow insulated state, that a great musician achieves in a great performance. He's aware of where he is and what he's doing, but his mind is on the playing of the instrument with an internal sense of rightness.
I used to get tired of drinking iced tea, so I'd ask my wife if we had some lemonade, and I would just dump it right in there.
My problem happens to be near-sightedness - inability to see distance. And this is pretty tough on a golfer.
Look at the better players of my era - Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Raymond Floyd. They had pros they worked with from time to time, but out on Tour, thousands of miles from home, each of them learned to be his own best coach. I think Tiger can do the same.
I think I've heard somebody say that I was a well-dressed golfer. I guess that has something to do with the fact that a lot of people who play golf don't dress very well.
I never felt that I didn't have a chance to win.
When you lose the ability to step up and hit the ball as hard and as far as you want, that also affects your ability to will the ball to go where you want it to go, if you know what I mean.
I fly my own airplane, and I have since 1960. I rarely fly anywhere other than my own airplane.
I was mixing iced tea and lemonade in my kitchen since as long as I can remember. It wasn't until some time in the early 1960s that it became associated with me publicly.
I find myself getting associated with a lot of younger people in the game. I still enjoy playing with them, and I think they still enjoy playing with me. As long as I can stay competitive and have fun doing what I'm doing, I guess I'll keep doing it.
To me, wearing glasses is no pleasure, but once I conceded that I simply couldn't properly judge distance without them, I began to experiment. I tried glasses and found them uncomfortable. I switched to contact lenses, and they also bothered me.
I quit flying myself last year and that was difficult for me because I enjoy it as much as playing golf. It was an adjustment sitting in the back of the plane, rather than at the controls, but I've grown accustomed to it and enjoy reading a book, doing some work or challenging my wife to a game of dominos.
It is a rare and difficult attainment to grow old gracefully and happily.
Had I not become a professional golfer, I think I would have pursued some type of career in aviation.
What do I mean by concentration? I mean focusing totally on the business at hand and commanding your body to do exactly what you want it to do.
I don't think that golf has a place for two sets of rules. I think one of the reasons that the game has progressed in the way that it has over the years is the fact that the amateurs and the pros all play the same game, and they play under the same set of rules.
Everyone I built a course for thinks they have the best golf course in the world and I'm very pleased and proud of that.
Feel is the most perplexing part of golf, and probably the most important.
I putt like I did when I was a kid. When you're a kid, you're not scared of anything.
Concentration, Confidence, Competitive urge, Capacity for enjoyment.
I'm not much for sitting around and thinking about the past or talking about the past. What does that accomplish? If I can give young people something to think about, like the future, that's a better use of my time.
Golf challenges you mentally at any age, and when you become my age, it's a challenge physically to try to make your game work as well as it ever did. That's close to impossible, but that doesn't keep you from trying to hit the ball where you used to hit it and make the putts you used to make all the time.