Arnold Palmer, born in the steel mill town of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, rose to become a legendary American golfer.
Taught by his professional golfer father, Palmer honed an aggressive, unorthodox style that led him to numerous victories on the PGA Tour, including seven major championships and four Masters titles.
His golfing prowess, dating back to 1955, earned him a cherished place as one of golf’s most successful and beloved stars.
Beyond the golf course, Palmer was an astute businessman, presiding over Arnold Palmer Enterprises and starting a golf-course-design firm.
He also had a passion for aviation and owned multiple planes.
Related: Ken Venturi Quotes from the American Professional Golfer and Jordan Spieth Quotes From American Professional Golfer
As an author, Palmer penned several books, sharing his life experiences and golf techniques.
Arnold Palmer contributions to golf both on and off the course made him an iconic figure in the sport.
Palmer passed away in 2016 at 87, leaving behind a legacy of greatness in the world of golf.
Below you will find some of the best quotes from the golf legend Arnold Palmer.
Greatest Arnold Palmer Quotes
A lot of people are afraid of winning. I was afraid I might not win. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Winning isn’t everything, but wanting it is. ~ Arnold Palmer.
If you’re stupid enough to whiff, you should be smart enough to forget it. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I have won the Australian, I won the British, all PGA championships, but I haven’t won the PGA championship. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Your worst putt will usually be as good as your best chip. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I like the Miami because I could play golf all winter. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I think the guys are more conscious of the fact that being in good physical condition under the conditions that they play will make them better players. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Golf is a game of inches. The most important are the six inches between your ears. ~ Arnold Palmer.
You must play boldly to win. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Know how to win by following the rules. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Even before you step up to the ball, have a full battle plan for the hole worked out. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I love America. I wanted to play golf. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Why hit a conservative shot? When you miss it, you are in just as much trouble as when you miss a bold one. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I never felt that I didn’t have a chance to win. ~ Arnold Palmer.
It is such a disappointment in American political reaction and actions. When some of our politicians are flying around the country in private airplanes all the time, using public services as their mode of private transportation, and then criticizing us who are in business. ~ Arnold Palmer.
The only really unplayable lie I can think of is when you’re supposed to be playing golf and come home with lipstick on your collar. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I enjoy the press. I understand their business. ~ Arnold Palmer.
The thing I probably love the most is driving out with the championship trophy under my arm. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Every day I play golf, that’s my goal. To break 70 the other way. To shoot 70 or better. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I’ve always been a big thinker that the more international competition that we create through sports the better relationships we’ll have with countries. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Popular Arnold Palmer Quotes
I suppose I could think of a lot of things to say about the fact that I still play. But I don’t really need to. I can tell you this, that I enjoy it. I still enjoy it. I like to get out in the air and I like to walk and I like to do the things that are involved in playing golf. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Sam Snead will fly anywhere in my plane with me. Sam’s not as worried about the danger as he is about saving money. ~ Arnold Palmer.
A lot of tournaments that I can remember I made a few bad shots and I was afraid I would lose the tournament and it seemed to work, the putts seemed to go in. Just the Desire. ~ Arnold Palmer.
It’s a funny thing, the more I practice the luckier I get. ~ Arnold Palmer.
If Tiger Woods slamming his club into the ground is the biggest worry we have, our sport is in pretty good shape. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Golf never ceases to be a challenge, even when it really is just you and the ball out there and nobody else. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Concentration, Confidence, Competitive urge, Capacity for enjoyment. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I was playing cowboys and Indians in the trees, and then I started hitting the golf club with clubs father sawed off for me, and I began playing right here with my father. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I would like to have won more golf tournaments. But I wouldn’t sacrifice my life. I’ve enjoyed it. I’d love to do it again the same way. ~ Arnold Palmer.
If the athlete is fair with the press, he deserves fairness back. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I would never felt good if I hadn’t experienced losing, because losing is part of your life. And it something that if I could teach people to understand that I think it could help them a lot. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Inspirational Arnold Palmer Quotes
How did I make a twelve on a par five hole? It’s simple – I missed a four foot putt for an eleven. ~ Arnold Palmer.
My grandson Sam Saunders has been playing golf since he could hold a club and I spent a lot of time with him over the years. Like my father taught me, I showed him the fundamentals of the game and helped him make adjustments as he and his game matured over the years. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I had a system, and the system worked. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I talk to golfers, I talk to my grand kids about their game, and tell them to develop a system, Now, when they’re young. And if they develop that system, it will be the crutch they need to be good. To know that system and make it work for you, know what it is and make it work. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I can sum it up like this: Thank God for the game of golf. ~ Arnold Palmer.
An athlete must have a certain cockiness to succeed and win, but an athlete must also care about the game he or she plays. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Success in this game depends less on strength of body than strength of mind and character. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Success in golf depends less on strength of body than upon strength of mind and character. ~ Arnold Palmer.
When you play by the rules, defy mental demons, overcome every challenge, and enjoy a walk in the country at the same time – that’s being alive. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Famous Arnold Palmer Quotes
If you can see it, you can hit it and if you can hit it, you can hole it. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Don’t be ashamed to play safe. ~ Arnold Palmer.
The secret of concentration is the secret of self-discovery. You reach inside yourself to discover your personal resources, and what it takes to match them to the challenge. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I never felt I could be a complete professional without having won the British Open. It was something you had to do to complete your career. ~ Arnold Palmer.
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.
The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done. ~ Arnold Palmer.
If you can concentrate on what you’re doing and have the desire to do the things you have to do to win, you’ll succeed. ~ Arnold Palmer.
All the things that I have derived either directly or indirectly through the game of golf are things I owe a great deal to the game and to the people who support the game. ~ Arnold Palmer.
The whole secret to mastering the game of golf – and this applies to the beginner as well as the pro – is to cultivate a mental approach to the game that will enable you to shrug off the bad days, keep patient and know in your heart that sooner or later you will be back on top. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Timing is everything in life and in golf. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Here is a philosophy of boldness to take advantage of every tiny opening toward victory. ~ Arnold Palmer.
What other people may find in poetry or art museums, I find in the flight of a good drive: the white ball sailing up into the sky, reaching its apex, falling and finally dropping to the turf, just the way I planned it. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I have a tip that can take five strokes off anyone’s golf game. It’s called an eraser. ~ Arnold Palmer.
When you get into competition and get under pressure, and get over that ball and are looking at it, and know you have to hit it, it is having that system to depend on to get that ball to where you want it to be. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Best Arnold Palmer Quotes
When I was in college, I thought about becoming an attorney. But I wasn’t smart enough; I hate being cooped up indoors; and I’m too nice a guy. ~ Arnold Palmer.
One thing I’ve learned over time is, if you hit a golf ball into water, it won’t float. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I was born in 1929, that was the depression, so the golf course was manned by my father and two guys, they worked for my dad and they took me with them everywhere they went. And it was fun. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I’m not much for sitting around and thinking about the past or talking about the past. What does that accomplish? ~ Arnold Palmer.
I wanted to emulate my father. I wanted to be as tough as he was. I wanted to do the things that he did. I watched him. ~ Arnold Palmer.
The game has such a hold on golfers because they compete not only against an opponent, but also against the course, against par, and most surely- against themselves. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I’ve always made a total effort, even when the odds seemed entirely against me. I never quit trying; I never felt that I didn’t have a chance to win. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I can’t afford the luxury of music while I’m flying an airplane. I have to pay attention to what I’m doing. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Swing your swing. Not some idea of a swing. Not a swing you saw on TV. Not that swing you wish you had. No, swing your swing. Capable of greatness. Prized only by you. Perfect in its imperfection. Swing your swing. I know, I did. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Concentration comes out of a combination of confidence and hunger. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Frankly, I’m not much for funerals unless it’s absolutely an obligation. I don’t feel it serves much of a purpose to go and see my friends just lying there, dead. I try to pay my respects to my friends when they’re alive. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I didn’t get playing professional golf until I was 25 years old. And I always said that if I could make it work, I would play as long as I could walk. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Swing your swing. I know, I did. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Inspiring Arnold Palmer Quotes
In my early days of flying, if you flew on instruments, you were inevitably going to fly in thunderstorms. That was just a part of the business of flying. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I think today’s athletes generally are spoiled by what’s happened to salaries, but I also think that golfers have maintained the best demeanor of any sport. ~ Arnold Palmer.
What separates great players from the good ones is not so much ability as brain power and emotional equilibrium. ~ Arnold Palmer.
For years I did take my time, but that was because I hated waiting to hit shots – I adopted a pace where I didn’t have to stand by my ball and wait. ~ Arnold Palmer.
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. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Establish a system you have confidence in and rely on it when you get into tough situations. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I received many years of good advice from my father – how to live, how to play, how to be a gentleman. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Players need to remember they didn’t make golf. Golf made them. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I never rooted against an opponent, but I never rooted for him either. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Putting is like wisdom – partly a natural gift and partly the accumulation of experience. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Top Arnold Palmer Quotes
Putting is a fascinating, aggravating, wonderful, terrible and almost incomprehensible part of the game of golf. ~ Arnold Palmer.
As long as I can stay competitive and have fun doing what I’m doing, I guess I’ll keep doing it. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I have a psychological feeling about things – and if I have something that I need to accomplish and I accomplish it, I let down after that, and that happened to me in golf. ~ Arnold Palmer.
When people ask what’s driven me all these years, I always give the same answer. It’s you. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I’m in love with golf, and I want everybody else to share my love affair. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I always said that if I have the perfect club then I should play the perfect game. ~ Arnold Palmer.
When I was growing up, they had just found radio. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Memorable Arnold Palmer Quotes
Trouble is bad to get into but fun to get out of. If you’re in trouble, eighty percent of the time there’s a way out. If you can see the ball, you can probably hit it; and if you can hit it, you can move it; and if you can move it, you might be able to knock it in the hole. At least it’s fun to try. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Hit it hard, go find it and hit it hard again. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I would not have been able to accomplish a lot of what I did professionally had I not learned to fly myself and owned an airplane. For example, I was able to fly to an exhibition for the day and be back home in time for dinner. I never would have been able to do that flying commercially. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I try to design golf courses that are individual in character and individual in their own standing. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Golf is deceptively simple, endlessly complicated. A child can play it well and a grown man can never master it. It is almost a science, yet it is a puzzle with no answer. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I think I’ve heard somebody say that I was a well-dressed golfer. I guess that has something to do with the fact that a lot of people who play golf don’t dress very well. ~ Arnold Palmer.
What do I mean by concentration? I mean focusing totally on the business at hand and commanding your body to do exactly what you want it to do. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I would like to say, however, that a man might be walking around lucky and not know it unless he tries. ~ Arnold Palmer.
The road to success is always under construction. ~ Arnold Palmer.
You can describe my round as having moments of ecstasy and stark raving terror. I looked like I knew what I was doing at times and at other times I looked like a twenty handicap player. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Motivational Arnold Palmer Quotes
I played high school golf, I played amateur golf and I started getting officers. I was playing pretty good, won amateur tournaments as a junior, and the whole thing. ~ Arnold Palmer.
My father started on this golf course at Latrobe when he was sixteen years old. He was digging ditches when they were building the golf course. ~ Arnold Palmer.
The fans, I loved them. My mother would be in the gallery, I would look right at my mother and not remember. ~ Arnold Palmer.
Had I not become a professional golfer, I think I would have pursued some type of career in aviation. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I have a tip that can take 5 strokes off anyone’s golf game. It’s called an eraser. ~ Arnold Palmer.
I never met a winner who had a work ethic. Not somebody who says I have so much talent that naturally I won. ~ Arnold Palmer.
What other people may find in poetry or art museums, I find in the flight of a good drive. ~ Arnold Palmer.
So these were the 105 inspiring Arnold Palmer quotes and sayings on life, golf, luck and success.
If you like these quotes, sayings and facts, then you can also read my other posts on Cathy Freeman quotes and Marcus Rashford quotes.
