The life of a professional golfer is precarious at best. Win, and they carry you to the clubhouse on their shoulders. Lose, and you pay the caddies in the dark.
The U.S. Open just takes so much discipline. You have got to be a great putter and just kind of let things roll off your back.
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.
I don't think golf has ever been any pressure as far as having to succeed.
If ever I needed an eight foot putt, and everything I owned depended on it, I would want Arnold Palmer to putt for me.
Putting affects the nerves more than anything. I would actually get nauseated over three-footers.
Miss a putt for $2,000? Not likely!
Putting allows the touchy golfer two to four opportunities to blow a gasket in the short space of two to forty feet.
If you think golf is relaxing, you're not playing it right.
In tennis, you can make a couple of mistakes and still win. Not in golf. I played three rounds in that Tahoe event, and I was drained. Mentally, not physically.
Tiger Woods did not always win majors with ease; after his narrow victory in the 1999 PGA, he slumped and sighed as if he'd been carrying rocks uphill all afternoon.
This is what I love to do. And if pressure is something that comes with playing good golf, that's something a professional golfer has to handle.
One of my thoughts on the back nine was 'I don't know how Tiger has won 14 of these things,' I couldn't feel my legs on the back nine.
People think I can really play golf, but it's actually been almost an albatross for me. I really struggle not only to break 80, but sometimes to break 90.
I've always felt how players handle the pressure was the most interesting part of golf.
When I'm off the golf course, I feel the pressure, but I try to concentrate on the golf course.
I'm helpless in post-round, hole-by-hole interviews. I can't take you through most of the holes of winning the Players Championship, the U.S. Amateur or Ryder Cup matches. It's like golf amnesia.
Whether I'm shooting 10-under or 10-over I have to realize people have come a long way to see me play. I can't be back-handing putts.
I feel like everyone in golf is just playing this part of this perfect golfer when in reality it's nothing like that.
It's so hard to make a good tee shot after a birdie.
He started pushing to make birdies and you don't do that when you're down.
