John Jacobs said The only purpose of the golf swing is to move the club through the ball square to the target at maximum speed. How this is done is of no significance at all, so long as the method employed enables it to be done repetitively.
Willie Park (well before your time) said The man who can putt is a match for anyone.
Mark Twain said It's still good sportsmanship to not pick up lost balls while they are still rolling.
Ed Furgol said Everybody has two swings, a beautiful practice swing and the choked-up one with which they hit the ball.
Tom Gilmour (in the San Francisco Chronicle) wrote Watching the Masters on CBS is like attending a church service. Announcers speak in hushed, pious tones, as if to convince us that something of great meaning and historical importance is taking place. What we are actually seeing is grown men hitting little balls wih sticks.
Jim Murray said The nice thing about golf books is that they usually cancel each other out. One book tells you to keep your eye on the ball; the next says not to bother. Personally, in the crowd I play with, a better idea is to keep your eye on your partner.
Michael Green (the Art of Coarse Golf) said The secret of missing a tree is to aim straight at it.
Tommy Bolt Always throw your clubs ahead of you. That way you don't have to waste energy going back to pick them up.
From Curiosities of Golf by Jonathan Rice The clubhouse is not always out of bounds. When Nigel Denham played his second shot to the 18th a little too strongly during the English Open Amateur Championship at Moortown, Leeds in 1974, the ball bounced up the clubhouse steps and pinged of a wall into the bar. Playing the 19th hole before the 18th is unusual, but Denham did not hesitate. He opened the window and pitched the ball back onto the green within ten feet of the cup.
The R & A subsequently ruled that he should have been penalised two strokes for opening the window, on the principle that the clubhouse was an immovable object and therefore no part of it should have been moved.
From the same source The Golf Nut Society of America reported in 1994 that a member had a regular habit of opening the glass door of his apartment and hitting practice drives through the opening. On one occasion, he pulled his shot and it hit the door frame at full power. The ball ricocheted back past his head and embedded itself in the wall behind him. The golfer has left the ball there as a reminder to hit straighter in future.
Tommy Armour said Action before thought is the ruin of most of your shots.
Tony Lema said The first rule usually is no woman-chasing after Wednesday.
Walter Hagen said You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry. Don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.
You can drive off in England and hole out in Wales at the 345-yard 4th hole at Llanmynech Golf Club, Oswestry.
Henry Ford said Excercise is bunk. If you are healthy, you don't need it: if you are sick, you shouldn't take it.
Gary Player said Hook and you'll hang in there. Fade and you'll fade away.
Seve Ballesteros said I'd like to see the fairways more narrow. Then everybody would have to play from the rough, not just me.
Colin Bowles said The fundamental problem with golf is that every so often, no matter how lacking you may be in the essential virtues required of a steady player, the odds are that one day you will hit the ball straight, hard and out of sight. This is the essential frustration of this excruciating sport. For when you have done it once, you make the fundamental error of asking yourself why you can't do it all the time. The answer to this question is simple: the first time was a fluke.
W.C.Fields said If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no use being a damn fool about it.
Spanish Proverb
Go to friends for advice;
To women for pity;
To strangers for charity;
To relatives for nothing.
