Quotes from Tom Watson

The person I fear most in the last two rounds is myself.

Golfers who play a lot of courses often encounter short ledges or retaining walls, and I always had fun hopping down from them. I could jump off something six feet high and land like a cat, no problem. Well, today I can't jump off anything higher than two feet without it just killing me.

Sometimes thinking too much can destroy your momentum.

If a course needs to be in great condition to be played effectively, then the design strategy is flawed.

I love the way the game of golf is lived and played in Scotland. I always have.

A lot of guys who have never choked have never been in the position to do so.

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.

Any time you play in a USGA Championship, if you don't drive the ball on the fairway, you're dead. You're done.

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.

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.

I always could putt. Part of my makeup, I always could putt.

My favorite meal has always been fried chicken.

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.

Golf will grow so long as it's fun.

The beautiful thing about the game of golf is you can play good golf and compete well into your later years, and you can't do this in basketball or football or baseball. But in golf, it's a longer live sport.

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.

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.

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.

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.

After playing Ballybunion for the first time, a man would think that the game of golf originated here.

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.

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.

We tournament golfers are much overrated. We get paid to much.

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.