A leading difficulty with the average player is that he totally misunderstands what is meant by concentration. He may think he is concentrating hard when he is merely worrying.
The secret of golf is to turn three shots into two.
The best exercise for golfers is golfing.
Golf is recognized as one of the more difficult games to play or teach. One reason for this is that each person necessarily plays by feel, and a feel is almost impossible to describe.
Many shots are spoiled at the last instant by efforts to add a few more yards.
If ever I needed an eight foot putt, and everything I owned depended on it, I would want Arnold Palmer to putt for me.
The moment the average golfer attempts to play from long grass or a bunker or from a difficult lie of any kind, he becomes a digger instead of a swinger.
No one ever swung too slowly.
No-one will ever have golf under his thumb. No round ever will be so good it could not have been better. Perhaps this is why golf is the greatest of games. You are not playing a human adversary; you a playing a game. You are playing old man par.
Some people think they are concentrating when they’re merely worrying.
It is nothing new or original to say that golf is played one stroke at a time. But it took me many years to realize it.
Rhythm and timing are the two things which we all must have, yet no one knows how to teach either.
I always like to see a person stand up to a golf ball as though he were perfectly at home in its presence.
The rewards of golf, and of life too I expect, are worth very little if you don’t play the game by the etiquette as well as by the rules.
I got an extra hour’s nap.
Some emotions cannot be endured with a golf club in your hands.
Nobody ever wins the National Open. Somebody loses it.
It is nevertheless a game of considerable passion, either of the explosive type, or that which burns inwardly and sears the soul.
In order to win, you must play your best golf when you need it most, and play your sloppy stuff when you can afford it. I shall not attempt to explain how you achieve this happy timing.
I have never felt so lonely as on a golf course in the midst of a championship with thousands of people around, especially when things began to go wrong and the crowds started wandering away.