A biography for Jack Nicklaushasn’t been written yet.
“I've never set up any golf course that would favor anybody. I try to make it exactly the opposite, which is what we did at Valhalla when we modernized it to accommodate the lengths players are hitting it today.”
“There are no maladies in my golf game. My golf game stinks.”
“I thoroughly enjoy working with kids, whether it's The First Tee or the lesson tee with my grandkids.”
“And, of course, I'm constantly energized by designing courses around the world.”
“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.”
“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.”
“A perfectly straight shot with a big club is a fluke.”
“I'm probably the only bottom-heavy golfer in the country.”
“I might cook occasionally, but I'm not a good cook. That's not my passion.”
“A kid grows up a lot faster on the golf course. Golf teaches you how to behave.”
“But if I played well and prepared myself properly, then all I had to do was control myself and put myself in a position to win.”
“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.”
“He's going to be around a long, long time, if his body holds up. That's always a concern with a lot of players because of how much they play. A lot of guys can't handle it. But it looks like he can.”
“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.”
“I'm a firm believer that 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.”
“Writers have told me more than once that I'm a better interview in defeat than in victory, which is a compliment I am extremely proud of.”
“There are always new places to go fishing. For any fisherman, there's always a new place, always a new horizon.”
“See, as much as I love the game, golf was my vehicle to competition. And I love to compete.”
“Success depends almost entirely on how effectively you learn to manage the game's two ultimate adversaries: the course and yourself.”
“Through the years of experience I have found that air offers less resistance than dirt.”