“People have always been telling me what I can’t do. I guess I have wanted to show them. That’s been one of my driving forces all my life.”

All other things being equal, greens break to the west.

You continually have to ask yourself what club to play, where to aim it, whether to accept a safe par or to try to go for a birdie. You can’t play every hole the same way. I never could.

Jesus Christ can’t hit a golf ball straight. It’s virtually impossible – at best it’s an accident.

Selecting a stroke is like selecting a wife. To each his own.

Your name is the most important thing you own. Don’t ever do anything to disgrace or cheapen it.

Golf is 20 percent talent and 80 percent management.

I don’t believe there is anything like a natural golf swing. A golf swing is an unnatural thing, and it has to be developed.

The most important shot in golf is the next one.

Shoot a lower score than everybody else.

I play golf with friends sometimes, but there are never friendly games.

I dreamed one night that I had 17 holes-in-one and one two, and when I woke up I was so goddam mad.

A shot that goes in the cup is pure luck, but a shot to within two feet of the flag is skill.

May thy ball lie in green pastures, and not in still waters.

I see no reason that a golf course cannot be played in 18 birdies. Just because no one has ever done that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

Like most professional golfers, I have a tendency to remember my poor shots a shade more vividly than the good ones.

I could not wait for the sun to come up the next morning so that I could get out on the course again.