The Best Golf Sayings In The History of The Game
Golf goes back to Roman times and as such, there has been a lot of discussion about the sport over the years.
Whether a pro player makes a statement that rings true with his amateur fans or a writer publishes a book filled with golf quotes, you can be sure to find a lot of saying related to this great sport.
For a bit of fun, we thought that we would put together a comprehensive list of some of the best golf sayings and golf quotes in the history of the game – and we are confident that you will find many of them very relatable.
Golf Sayings And Quotes
To bring you all of the sayings related to our wonderful sport, we would need to make an entire series.
But we have put together a list of some of our favourites,
Quotes From The Rich And Famous
“Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole with weapons ill-designed for the purpose.” – Winston Churchill.
“I think of golf as an expensive way of playing marbles.” – G K Chesterton.
“Golf is not just an exercise, it is an adventure, a romance…a Shakespeare play in which comedy and disaster are intertwined.” – Harold Segall.
“Golf appeals to the child in us as well as the idiot. Just like how childlike golfers become is proven by their frequent inability to count past five.” – John Updike.
“The uglier a man’s legs are, the better he plays golf. It’s almost a law.” – H G Wells.
“Golf is golf. You hit the ball, you go find it. Then you hit it again.” – Lon Hinkle
“I have a tip that can take five strokes off anyone’s golf game: It’s called an eraser.” – Arnold Palmer.
“Although golf was originally restricted to wealthy, overweight Protestants, today it’s open to anybody who owns hideous clothing.” – Dave Berry.
“Golf… is the infallible test. The man who can go into a patch of rough alone, with the knowledge that only God is watching him, and play his ball where it lies, is the man who will serve you faithfully and well.” – P G Wodehouse.
“Golf is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots; you get good breaks from bad shots – but you have to play the ball where it lies.” – Bobby Jones.
“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.” – Arnold Palmer.
“Mistakes are part of the game. It’s how well you recover from them, that’s the mark of a great player.” – Alice Cooper
“Golf is a compromise between what your ego wants you to do, what experience tells you to do, and what your nerves let you do” – Bruce Crampton.
“Golf is about how well you accept, respond to, and score with your misses much more so than it is a game of your perfect shots” – Dr Bob Rotella.
“One reason golf is such an exasperating game is that a thing we learned is so easily forgotten, and we find ourselves struggling year after year with faults we had discovered and corrected time and again.” – Bobby Jones.
“When you lip out several putts in a row, you should never think that means that you’re putting well. When you’re putting well, the only question is what part of the hole it’s going to fall in, not if it’s going in.” – Jack Nicklaus.
“Golf is a science, the study of a lifetime, in which you can exhaust yourself but never your subject.” – David Forgan.
“Golf is good for the soul. You get so mad at yourself you forget to hate your enemies.” – Will Rogers.
“Golf is a fascinating game. It has taken me nearly 40 years to discover that I can’t play it.” – Ted Ray.
“Golf combines two favourite American pastimes; taking long walks and hitting things with a stick.” – P J O’Rourke.
“Golf is like a razor. You get just so sharp and then it begins to dull a little more the more you use it.” – Doug Sanders.
“A passion, an obsession, a romance, a nice acquaintanceship with trees, sand and water.” – Bob Ryan.
“One of the most fascinating things about golf is how it reflects the cycle of life. No matter what you shoot – the next day you have to go back to the first tee and begin all over again and make yourself into something.” – Peter Jacobson.
“A leading difficulty with the average player is that he totally misunderstands what is meant by concentration. He may think he is concentrating hard when he is merely worrying.” – Bobby Jones.
“Golf is the loneliest sport. You’re completely alone with every conceivable opportunity to defeat yourself. Golf brings out your assets and liabilities as a person.
The longer you play, the more certain you are that a man’s performance is the outward manifestation of who, in his heart, he really thinks he is.” – Hale Irwin.
“Golf is the only sport I know of where a player pays for every mistake. A man can muff a serve in tennis, miss a strike in baseball, or throw an incomplete pass in football and still have another chance to square himself. In golf, every swing counts against you.” – Lloyd Mangrum.
“No matter how good you get, you can always get better — and that’s the exciting part.” – Tiger Woods.
“Golf is a good walk, spoiled.” – Mark Twain.
“Forget the last shot. It takes so long to accept that you can’t always replicate your swing. The only thing you can control is your attitude toward the next shot.” – Mark McCumber.
“Keep your sense of humour. There’s enough stress in the rest of your life not to let bad shots ruin a game you’re supposed to enjoy.” – Amy Alcott.
“I started watching golf for the first time yesterday. I’m really worried about myself. I was actually enjoying it.” – Ewan McGregor.
Anonymous Golf Sayings
Sometimes, someone, somewhere comes up with something so incredibly fitting to the game of golf, that they couldn’t possibly put their name to the quote. Maybe out of fear, timidity or just to leave us guessing. Either way, there are many excellent anonymous golf sayings out there – we just wish we knew who to thank for them.
“When I die, be sure to bury me on a golf course so that I know my husband will come and visit me.”
“The difference between golf and tennis is that in tennis you want to kill the other player, whereas, in golf, you just want to kill yourself.”
“The proper score for a businessman golfer is 90. If he is better than that he is neglecting his business. If he’s worse, he’s neglecting his golf.”
Funny Golf Quotes
There’s no denying that sometimes, we need to inject a little humour into the game, just to keep us sane: some of these funny golf quotes are sure to bring a smile to even the hardest-faced players.
“Thou shalt not use profanity; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s putter; thou shalt not steal thy neighbour’s ball; thou shalt not bear false witness in the final tally.” – The rules for the church golf game.
“If you watch a game, it’s fun; if you play it, it’s recreational; if you work at it, it’s golf.” – Bob Hope.
“We learn a lot from golf, how to suffer, for example.” – Bruce Lansky.
“Actually, the Lord answers my prayers everywhere except on the golf course.” – Billy Graham.
“The ardent golfer would play Mount Everest if somebody put a flagstick on top.” – Pete Dye.
“Golf is a game in which you yell ‘fore’, shoot six and write down five.” – Paul Harvey.
“They call it golf because all the other four-letter words were taken..” – Ray Floyd.
Conclusion
So, there you have it, some of the most funny, sad, and relatable golf sayings and quotes in the world.
It isn’t difficult to see that over the course of history, many great players, comedians, actors, writers and even those who wish to remain nameless have come up with some extremely true quotes about golf.
Many of these sayings have stood the test of time and you’ll likely hear them time and time again – much in the same way that you’ll be taking that final stroke.
We also love Funny Golf Saying so read the fun article HERE.
