Course Management Quotes

I'm much better off the tee. I'm not a great putter. I do not have a good short game.

You don't have to hit perfect shots all the time here. The variety of shots you get to play, the shots you sometimes have to hit along the ground, it's just a lot of fun to me.

It is never easy to win but it is a lot easier to win when you play well. The key is winning golf tournaments when you are not playing so well. Managing your game is something that I feel that I am still learning to do.

If I'm hitting 3-wood and everyone else is hitting driver, it's a level playing field. If I'm hitting driver straight, then I think I'm playing at a different level than everybody else.

I'm trying to be a complete player and have every shot in the game.

I'm becoming a more complete player where I believe I can compete more week in, week out, especially in major championships.

I felt like, by the end of the week in the U.S. Amateur, I was never aiming at a flag; I was just hitting it at slopes and just letting the natural contours take over.

I've always said, the harder the golf course, the better I play.

You know what's funny, I really hate Par 3's. I feel like you have to be perfect from jumpstreet. But on Par 5's, you can mess up a little bit, but you still have time to adjust before you get to the hole and still end up with a birdie or a par.

Think ahead. Golf is a next-shot game.

Certainly, if you can't manage your game, you can't play tournament golf. You continually have to ask yourself what club to play, where to aim it, whether to accept a safe par or to try to go for a birdie. You can't play every hole the same way. I never could.

My first years on tour, I tried to be super professional by considering the yardages to every feature and hazard. Over time my caddie and I noticed I play better when we keep it simple. Think about the distance you want the ball to fly, and only that number.

Play the shot you've got the best chance of playing well.

Hitting a shorter club to these greens means a great, great deal. Younger players are so much more capable length-wise.

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

The difficulty is, all swing thoughts decay, like radium. What burnt up the course on Wednesday has turned to lead on Sunday. Yet it does not do to have a blank mind: the terrible hugeness of the course will rush into the vacuum and the ball will spray like a thing berserk.

Brushing up on your short game at the practice area is fine and good, but taking it with you to the golf course - when your score is really on the line - is another story.

The hardest weeks for me are when I get to a course that I've never been to before or one that has been through a redesign.

"Play it as it lies" is one of the fundamental dictates of golf

I call golf with my head and my heart. I don't have any notes in front of me - it's different from basketball and football in that feel.

The game itself, I think, plays into the strength of my game, which has always been tee to green, hitting the ball consistently in play and managing my game. Putting has always been the one thing that's been a bit more erratic.

Where I fall down is my short game. I don't practice enough, and when I have to take a half swing from 50 yards out, that's trouble.

For amateur golfers, I think one of the biggest mistakes is to model their play on professionals.

I never went into a tournament or round of golf thinking I had to beat a certain player. I had to beat the golf course. If I prepared myself for a major, went in focused, and then beat the golf course, the rest took care of itself.

Bets lengthen putts and shorten drives.