I’d rather fight 100 structure fires than a wildfire. With a structure fire you know where your flames are, but in the woods it can move anywhere; it can come right up behind you. – Tom Watson
I’m very happy with my life. I am what I am. I don’t worry about anything that I can’t control. That’s a really good lesson in life. – Tom Watson
Any time you play in a USGA Championship, if you don’t drive the ball on the fairway, you’re dead. You’re done. – Tom Watson
No other game combines the wonder of nature with the discipline of sport in such carefully planned ways. A great golf course both frees and challenges a golfer’s mind. – Tom Watson
I have a special feeling for Blue Hills CC, where I won perhaps the most important tournament of my life when I was 14 – the Kansas City Match Play Championship. It gave me a dream of becoming a professional golfer. – Tom Watson
If a course needs to be in great condition to be played effectively, then the design strategy is flawed. – Tom Watson
I hope that I’ve been able to treat people with the respect they’ve shown me. That’s basically the tenet you try to live by. I haven’t been successful at it all my life, but that’s what I strive for. – Tom Watson
You don’t have to go to church to be spiritual, but there are certain times in your life that you know there is a presence of something very spiritual. – Tom Watson
Golf is a game of ego, but it is also a game of integrity: the most important thing is you do what is right when no one is looking. – Tom Watson
My father wasn’t a hard guy. He was a well-liked guy. He had a lot of compassion about things in life. There were rules, but there was also flexibility within those rules. He didn’t push me when it came to golf: he just taught me the right way to play the game. – Tom Watson
Some guys have trouble sleeping the night before an important round. I never have. Invariably, I sleep longer and better, and have more dreams, when I’m in contention and feeling pressure. – Tom Watson
Confidence in golf means being able to concentrate on the problem at hand with no outside interference. – Tom Watson
When you come off that last hole and you’ve just finished a good round of golf, life is good. When you come off that last hole and you messed it up through four or five holes and just played a lousy round of golf, it’s just not a very good day. It just isn’t. – Tom Watson
I played team sport as a kid and loved it. I played basketball and football throughout high school into college in the intramurals and I loved it. There was nothing like a team. – Tom Watson
I’ve said many times, ‘You learn to win through not liking to lose.’ And that’s what I mean by learning how to win. – Tom Watson
I guess I have never been much of a complainer. You just take what is given you, and don’t complain about what you can’t affect. – Tom Watson
I didn’t learn how to swing a golf club until late in my career. And even though I won all those tournaments, I still struggled with consistency, and I relied on my strengths, which were hitting the ball long and high, and I could chip and putt with the best of ’em. – Tom Watson
From the time I won the Kansas City Match Play championship at age 14, I never wanted to be anything but a golfer. – Tom Watson