84 Best Golf Quotes From The Greatest Golfers
If you’re looking for the best golf quotes, you’ve come to the right place! All of the best golfers have something in common, they never stop learning. If you want to beat the best, you should study them and learn what makes them great.
In this post, I share some of the best quotes about golf from golfers who have mastered the game. Our list offers inspirational golf quotes from both male and female golfers that encompass life lessons, dedication, perseverance, and more!
Whether you’re an aspiring pro or casual fan, these quotes will resonate with anyone who appreciates the game’s unique blend of challenge and reward.
Famous Female Golfer Quotes
Louise Suggs
Mae Louise Suggs (September 7, 1923 – August 7, 2015) was an American professional golfer and one of the founders of the LPGA.
“Golf is very much like a love affair, if you don't take it seriously, it's no fun, if you do, it breaks your heart. Don't break your heart, but flirt with the possibility.”
Betsy Rawls
Elizabeth Earle "Betsy" Rawls (born May 4, 1928) is an American and former LPGA Tour professional golfer. She has won 8 major championships, 55 LPGA Tour career events, and is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
“I have always had a drive that pushed me to try for perfection, and golf is a game in which perfection stays just out of reach.”
Mickey Wright
Mary Kathryn "Mickey" Wright (February 14, 1935 – February 17, 2020) was an American professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour. She won 82 LPGA Tour career events, including 13 major championships. She is also a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
“When I play my best golf, I feel as if I'm in a fog, standing back watching the earth in orbit with a golf club in my hands.”
Kathy Whitworth
Kathrynne Ann Whitworth (born September 27, 1939) is an American professional golfer. She has won 88 LPGA Tour tournaments, more than anyone else on the LPGA Tour. She was the first woman to earn $1 million on the LPGA Tour and is also a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
“There are no absolutes in golf. Golf is such an individual game, and no two people swing alike.”
”Golf is a game of misses, and the winners are those who have the best misses.”
”Make sure that the career you choose is one you enjoy. If you don't enjoy what you're doing, it will be difficult to give the extra time, effort, and devotion it takes to be a success. If it is a career that you find fun and enjoyable, then you will do whatever it takes. You will give freely of your time and effort and you will not feel that you are making a sacrifice in order to be a success.”
“There's an old saying, 'It's a poor craftsman who blames his tools.' It's usually the player who misses those three-footers, not the putter.”
“Golf, more than most games, has a number of clichés, often successfully disguised as 'tips'. Watch out!”
Joanne Carner
JoAnne Gunderson Carner (born April 4, 1939) is an American former professional golfer. She is the fifth golfer ever to shoot their age or better multiple times in a USGA championship while also being the oldest golfer ever to play in a USGA championship.
She’s won 43 LPGA Tours and is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. She was the first person ever to win three different USGA championship events and is the only woman to have won the U.S. Girls' Junior, U.S. Women's Amateur, and U.S. Women's Open titles.
“I build confidence when I practice a variety of shots - hitting it high or low, working the ball. A lot of golfers go to the range and just hit full shots. That doesn't build on-course confidence, because you won't always hit full shots out there. My confidence is built on knowing I can effectively work the ball in any circumstance.”
“The trouble with me is I think too much. I always said you have to be dumb to play good golf.”
“You have to love it and be willing to put in the time. I like to hit the ball where I’m aiming, but I’m never afraid of trouble.”
“When I’m into my 80s, I’ll have exactly one goal for my golf game: To keep being able to play.”
Sandra Haynie
Sandra Jane Haynie (born June 4, 1943) is an American former professional golfer on the LPGA Tour starting in 1961. She won four major championships, 42 LPGA Tour career events, and is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
“In your approach to golf, no one can tell you what to do. Just as in life, you are presented with options; it’s up to you to decide which ones suit you best.”
Nancy Lopez
Nancy Marie Lopez (born January 6, 1957) is a retired American professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1977 and won 48 LPGA Tour events, including three major championships.
“Great champions have an enormous sense of pride. The people who excel are those who are driven to show the world and prove to themselves just how good they are.”
“Do your best, one shot at a time and then move on. Remember that golf is just a game.”
“Doubt yourself and you doubt everything you see. Judge yourself and you see judges everywhere. But if you listen to the sound of your own voice, you can rise above doubt and judgment. And you can see forever.”
“A competitor will find a way to win. Competitors take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves just that much harder. Quitters take bad breaks and use them as reasons to give up. It's all a matter of pride.”
Annika Sorenstam
Annika Charlotta Sörenstam (born 9 October 1970) is a Swedish professional golfer. She is regarded as one of the best female golfers in history. She won 90 international tournaments as a professional, making her the female golfer with the most wins to her name.
She has won 72 official LPGA tournaments including ten majors and 18 other tournaments internationally, and she tops the LPGA's career money list with earnings of over $22 million.
“On the first tee I kept telling myself, trust yourself, you can do it."
“Ron Sirak, a golf writer and friend, was quoted as saying, "Annika is no longer a female golfer. She's a golfer." That's truly all I ever aspired to be.”
“I push myself to be the best I can be. I don't worry about what other people are doing, and I don't think about things I can't control.”
“You just have to try and keep on grinding and hope that things will turn around eventually.”
“There are no shortcuts to success.”
“A lot of people think I am cold and have no feelings. But I do. I just try very hard to focus and not let my emotions take over on the golf course.”
Best Golf Quotes From Male Golfers
Jack Nicklaus
Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940) is an American retired professional golfer. He is widely considered to be the greatest or one of the greatest golfers of all time. He won 117 professional tournaments in his career.
Over a quarter-century, he won a record 18 major championships. He competed in 164 major tournaments, more than any other player, and finished with 73 victories.
“Sometimes the biggest problem is in your head. You’ve got to believe you can play a shot instead of wondering where your next bad shot is coming from.”
“Success depends almost entirely on how effectively you learn to manage the games’ two ultimate adversaries: the course and yourself.”
“Talent isn’t important as the work and dedication necessary to become competent.”
“Focus on remedies not faults.”
“Pursue what you love, what you are passionate about. Don’t let somebody else dictate your life’s path.”
“Resolve never to quit, never to give up, no matter what the situation.”
“I’m a firm believer in the theory that people only do their best at things they truly enjoy. It is difficult to excel at something you don’t enjoy.”
“A kid grows up a lot faster on the golf course. Golf teaches you how to behave.”
Tommy Bolt
Thomas Henry Bolt (March 31, 1916 – August 30, 2008) was an American professional golfer. Bolt won 15 tournaments on the PGA Tour from 1950 to 1965. After he turned 50, he won 12 more times in seniors competition, including the PGA Seniors Championship in 1969. (The PGA Seniors Tour, now known as the Champions Tour, had yet to be founded.) He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2002.
“Golf is a game where guts and blind devotion will always net you absolutely nothing but an ulcer.”
“If you are going to throw a club, it is important to throw it ahead of you, down the fairway, so you don't have to waste energy going back to pick it up.”
“The mind messes up more shots than the body.”
Sam Snead
Samuel Jackson Snead (May 27, 1912 – May 23, 2002) was an American professional golfer who was one of the top players in the world for the better part of four decades (having won PGA of America and Senior PGA Tour events over six decades) and widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.
Snead was awarded a record 94 gold medallions, for wins in PGA of America (referred to by most as the PGA) Tour events and later credited with winning a record 82 PGA Tour events, including seven majors. Snead was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
"Thinking instead of acting is the number one golf disease."
"Practice puts brains in your muscles."
"Correct one fault at a time. Concentrate on the one fault you want to overcome."
"The mark of a great player is in his ability to come back. The great champions have all come back from defeat."
"If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they'd starve to death."
"You will hit the ball farther more frequently when you don't try to hit it far."
"You can not go into a shop and buy a good game of golf."
Ben Hogan
William Ben Hogan (August 13, 1912 – July 25, 1997) was an American professional golfer who is generally considered to be one of the greatest players in the history of the game. He is notable for his profound influence on golf swing theory and his legendary ball-striking ability.
"Golf is not a game of good shots. It's a game of bad shots."
"Selecting a stroke is like selecting a wife. To each his own."
"Reverse every natural instinct and do the opposite of what you are inclined to do, and you will probably come very close to having a perfect golf swing."
"Every day that I missed practicing takes me one day longer to be good."
"There isn’t enough daylight in any one day to practice all the shots you need to."
"You never fight your eye when you look at a hole. If it looks one way, play it that way. Don’t make a big deal out of an easy shot."
"A good round of golf is if you can hit about three shots that turnout exactly as you planned them."
"The ultimate judge of your swing is the flight of the ball."
"The most important shot in golf is the next one."
"This is a game of misses. The guy who misses the best is going to win."
"Placing the ball in the right position for the next shot is 80-percent of winning golf."
"You have to give careful thought to every shot. Every shot sets up what you are going to do next. Every shot has to be placed correctly. Don't ever just hit a shot without thinking it through."
"Relax? How can anybody relax and play golf? You have to grip the club don't you?"
"I have never achieved what I thought was success. Golf to me is a business, a livelihood in doing the thing that I like to do. I don't like the glamour. I just like the game."
"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."
"There are no shortcuts in the quest for perfection."
"For myself and other serious golfers, there is an undeniable beauty in the way a fine player sets his hands on the club."
"I always outworked everybody. Work never bothered me like it bothers some people."
Arnold Palmer
Arnold Daniel Palmer (September 10, 1929 – September 25, 2016) was an American professional golfer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the sport's history. Dating back to 1955, he won numerous events on both the PGA Tour and the circuit now known as PGA Tour Champions.
In a career spanning more than six decades, Palmer won 62 PGA Tour titles from 1955 to 1973. He is fifth on the Tour's all-time victory list. He won seven major titles in a six-plus-year domination from the 1958 Masters to the 1964 Masters. He also won the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998, and in 1974 was one of the 13 original inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
“You must play boldly to win.”
"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."
“The more I practice the luckier I get.”
"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."
“Concentration comes out of a combination of confidence and hunger.”
"I have a tip that can take five strokes off anyone's golf game: it's called an eraser."
"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."
"Success in golf depends less on strength of body than upon strength of mind and character."
“I never rooted against an opponent, but I never rooted for him either.”
Lee Trevino
Lee Buck Trevino (born December 1, 1939) is an American retired professional golfer who is regarded as one of the greatest players in golf history. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1981.
Trevino won six major championships and 29 PGA Tour events over the course of his career. He is one of only four players to twice win the U.S. Open, The Open Championship, and the PGA Championship.
"You can talk to a fade but a hook won't listen."
"If you are caught on a golf course during a storm and are afraid of lightning, hold up a 1-iron. Not even God can hit a 1-iron."
"There is no such thing as a natural touch. Touch is something you create by hitting millions of golf balls."
"You don't know what pressure is until you've played for $5 a hole with only $2 in your pocket."
"I've never had a coach in my life. When I find one who can beat me, then I'll listen."
Bobby Jones
Robert Tyre Jones Jr. (March 17, 1902 – December 18, 1971) was an American amateur golfer who was one of the most influential figures in the history of the sport. Jones founded and helped design the Augusta National Golf Club, and co-founded the Masters Tournament.
Jones was the most successful amateur golfer ever to compete at a national and international level. During his peak from 1923 to 1930, he dominated top-level amateur competition, and competed very successfully against the world's best professional golfers. In all Jones played in 31 majors, winning 13 and placing among the top ten finishers 27 times.
“Golf is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots; you get good breaks from bad shots - but you have to play the ball where it lies.”
"On the golf course, a man may be a dogged victim of inexorable fate, be struck down by an appalling stroke or tragedy, become the hero of an unbelievable melodrama, or the clown in a side-splitting comedy – any of these within a few hours, and all without having to bury a corpse or repair a tangled personality."
"In golf, the most important distance is the five inches between the ears."
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"No putt, or detail, is too small to be despised."
"You swing your best when you have the fewest things to think about."
"The secret to golf, and business, is to turn three shots into two."
"The object of golf is to beat someone. Make sure that someone is not yourself."
"The difference between a sand trap and water hazard is the difference between a car crash and an airplane crash. You have a chance of recovering from a car crash."
"Too much ambition is a bad thing to have in a bunker."
"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."
"I never learned anything from a match I won."
