A biography for Arnold Palmerhasn’t been written yet.
“Putting is like wisdom - partly a natural gift and partly the accumulation of experience.”
“I am a sentimental guy, and occasionally, that lump in my throat when I speak has stopped my tongue from working.”
“Ever since I bought and started flying an airplane, it's been almost exclusively for business. I love to fly. It's a great joy to me. But rarely do I use it for any kind of pleasure, other than it is a pleasure to fly.”
“The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.”
“I never felt that I didn't have a chance to win.”
“It is not a dreamlike state, but the somehow insulated state, that a great musician achieves in a great performance. He's aware of where he is and what he's doing, but his mind is on the playing of the instrument with an internal sense of rightness.”
“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.”
“Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated.”
“Critics who have said a safer shot here or there would undoubtedly have won me a few more tournaments are probably correct. Going for the green in two was who I was as a boy - and it's who I remain as a man.”
“I was mixing iced tea and lemonade in my kitchen since as long as I can remember. It wasn't until some time in the early 1960s that it became associated with me publicly.”
“I find myself getting associated with a lot of younger people in the game. I still enjoy playing with them, and I think they still enjoy playing with me. As long as I can stay competitive and have fun doing what I'm doing, I guess I'll keep doing it.”
“I don't think that golf has a place for two sets of rules. I think one of the reasons that the game has progressed in the way that it has over the years is the fact that the amateurs and the pros all play the same game, and they play under the same set of rules.”
“You don't go to Palm Springs in the summer unless you're building a golf course.”
“I think a firm grip helps you control the club and prevents it from turning in your hands. Another thing about feel is, if you make a change in your grip, it takes time for your brain to adapt.”
“Some players are wonderful hitters of the ball, but they can't figure out ways to get out of trouble. Eighty percent of the time, there is a way. You just have to know how to look for it.”
“Everyone I built a course for thinks they have the best golf course in the world and I'm very pleased and proud of that.”
“I fly my own airplane, and I have since 1960. I rarely fly anywhere other than my own airplane.”
“I never rooted against an opponent, but I never rooted for him either.”
“Feel is the most perplexing part of golf, and probably the most important.”
“The winners at the Olympics step up, bursting with pride, because everything that they have worked for and all their dedication is rewarded in a climax that I, and most golfers, will never experience.”