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Golf was my vehicle to competition and I can't play if I can't compete.

Jack Nicklaus

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Jack Nicklaus
Age: 84
Born: 1940
Born: January 21
Architect
Golfer
Landscape Architect
Columbus
Ohio
Golden Bear
Jack William Nicklaus
William Nicklaus
Bear
Karnak
Compete
Vehicle
Competition
Golf
Play

More quotes by Jack Nicklaus

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A big part of managing a golf course is managing your swing on the course.
Jack Nicklaus
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I learned early in my career, where you get so wrapped up and so excited, that all of a sudden you don't think. So I worked very hard to keep myself suppressed. And that's one of the reasons I wasn't gregarious with the gallery.
Jack Nicklaus
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I've always tried to play golf with a golf club. I have a hard time driving with my rifle. I mean, 18 is really narrow ... I have no problem with the course, except for the tee shot on 18.
Jack Nicklaus
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It's a great sense of accomplishment when you can take something and really think it's really tough, and then all of a sudden you conquer it. That makes you feel pretty good.
Jack Nicklaus
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I'm deadly serious even when I play tennis against my kids. I want to beat their brains out.
Jack Nicklaus
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That's sort of overkill. We've had 70 years of the Ryder Cup, and it's gotten along just fine. The pendulum will swing back without making a monumental thing about it.
Jack Nicklaus
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I like to catch fish and release them. I probably haven't killed a fish that I've caught in sport fishing for 20 years. No reason to kill it. You know, just take it and release it.
Jack Nicklaus
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Public appearances are a headache. I hold mine down to a minimum.
Jack Nicklaus
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You have to watch your handicap. My son Steve says, Never make a putt you don't have to.
Jack Nicklaus
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The holes are numbered.
Jack Nicklaus
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Well, the biggest rival I had in my career was me.
Jack Nicklaus
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Oakmont, you've got to be playing slope.
Jack Nicklaus
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If I have a weakness, it's probably ice cream. That's where I get lax, sloppy. I'll sneak into the refrigerator at night and take two or three bites and put it back. Butter pecan. Only two or three bites, but it shows.
Jack Nicklaus
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The importance of my legacy is not the golf course, it's what my life is, and what my life is intended to be. The game of golf is a game. My family is my life.
Jack Nicklaus
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I think my boys handled it pretty much the same way with their children, but my grandsons all ended up playing football or lacrosse.
Jack Nicklaus
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We don't play golf often [with kids] because they don't play that much anymore - because their kids don't play. It's like anything else - fathers these days end up in the parks on the weekends and they have their kids into lacrosse or soccer or whatever it might be.
Jack Nicklaus
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Resolve never to quit, never to give up, no matter what the situation.
Jack Nicklaus
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Once you play a tournament, you're playing against the golf course, you're playing against yourself and trying to do the best you can.
Jack Nicklaus
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This is a game. That's all it is. It's not a war.
Jack Nicklaus
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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