The Senior Tour is a good concept, although frankly I’m not astounded at its continued success. It gives a lot of guys an opportunity to extend their careers. – Jack Nicklaus
I think that Pebble Beach is my favorite golf course to go to. I think Augusta is my favorite place to go play golf. – Jack Nicklaus
I first saw Arnold Palmer when I was just a kid and he came to Columbus to play in a tournament. I watched him on the driving range hit balls that day. We went on to become great friends. – Jack Nicklaus
Golfers have a tendency to be very masochistic. They like to punish themselves for some reason. A lot of them like tough courses. – Jack Nicklaus
I’ve wanted to design golf courses ever since I was a kid. I suppose it comes from the way I’ve played the game. To find the proper way to play any hole, I’ve always begun by asking myself what the architect has tried to do with it. – Jack Nicklaus
If I were to look back on my work, I think I accomplished probably about 70 to 75 percent of what I could have. Maybe 60 percent. Somewhere in that area; two-thirds of what I could have accomplished. If I had been a really dedicated person, and really worked hard, I think I could have accomplished more. – Jack Nicklaus
A big part of managing a golf course is managing your swing on the course. A lot of guys can go out and hit a golf ball, but they have no idea how to manage what they do with the ball. I’ve won as many golf tournaments hitting the ball badly as I have hitting the ball well. – Jack Nicklaus
I couldn’t control Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Tom Watson or Lee Trevino. The only person I could control was me. The only person I could prepare for events was me. And if I didn’t play well, I didn’t play well, and I wasn’t going to compete. – Jack Nicklaus
The fact is, I diet every day of my life. I have to work at it. But I diet so I can pig out. – Jack Nicklaus
You have to trust your kids. They have to experience life, and you just hope you’ve provided them a foundation for what’s right and what isn’t. – Jack Nicklaus
I love design in general, the creativity. Whether it is golf courses, my apparel line, ads we do or our business with AriZona, design is fun. – Jack Nicklaus
Crises are part of life. Everybody has to face them, and it doesn’t make any difference what the crisis is. – Jack Nicklaus
How people keep correcting us when we are young! There is always some bad habit or other they tell us we ought to get over. Yet most bad habits are tools to help us through life. – Jack Nicklaus
See, as much as I love the game, golf was my vehicle to competition. And I love to compete. – Jack Nicklaus
If I had one golf course, from a design standpoint, one that I really love, it would probably be Pinehurst. There’s a totally tree-lined golf course where trees are not a part of the strategy. – Jack Nicklaus