Winning isn't everything, but wanting it is.

Putting is like wisdom - partly a natural gift and partly the accumulation of experience.

Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated.

You must play boldly to win.

Concentration, Confidence, Competitive urge, Capacity for enjoyment.

It is a rare and difficult attainment to grow old gracefully and happily.

I never rooted against an opponent, but I never rooted for him either.

The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.

Success in golf depends less on strength of body than upon strength of mind and character.

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 never quit trying. I never felt that I didn't have a chance to win.

I have a tip that can take 5 strokes off anyone's golf game. It's called an eraser.

Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you.

Winning isn't everything, but wanting it is.

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.

What other people may find in poetry or art museums, I find in the flight of a good drive.

Concentration comes out of a combination of confidence and hunger.

Ever since I bought and started flying an airplane, it's been almost exclusively for business. I love to fly. It's a great joy to me. But rarely do I use it for any kind of pleasure, other than it is a pleasure to fly.

Every day I play golf, that's my goal. To break 70 the other way. To shoot 70 or better.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Had I not become a professional golfer, I think I would have pursued some type of career in aviation.

I am a sentimental guy, and occasionally, that lump in my throat when I speak has stopped my tongue from working.

I can remember back to my early tour days when some fellows didn't think I'd last too long. Nothing physical - they said it was my swing. Some said it was too much of a 'muscle swing' to stand the test of time. One fellow predicted I wouldn't get past 30 out there.

I can't be casual about losing. I always think I have a chance to win until winning is absolutely impossible.

I don't see myself as a full-time broadcaster. I've done some of it, and I enjoy it, but I don't think I should try to make a career out of it.

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.

I fly my own airplane, and I have since 1960. I rarely fly anywhere other than my own airplane.

I have a tip that will take five strokes off anyone's golf game. It's called an eraser.

I never felt that I didn't have a chance to win.

I probably have a club in my hands 360 days a year, one way or another, playing with friends or just fiddling around or hitting balls.

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.

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.

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 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 try to deign golf courses that are individual in character and individual in their own standing.

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'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.

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.

My grandson Sam Saunders has been playing golf since he could hold a club and I spent a lot of time with him over the years. Like my father taught me, I showed him the fundamentals of the game and helped him make adjustments as he and his game matured over the years.

My problem happens to be near-sightedness - inability to see distance. And this is pretty tough on a golfer.

My search for ways to improve my touch has never ended. We players tried a lot of different things and compared notes. Little fads would set in.

The more I practice the luckier I get.

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.

The winners at the Olympics step up, bursting with pride, because everything that they have worked for and all their dedication is rewarded in a climax that I, and most golfers, will never experience.

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.