[Last year, when Phil Mickelson birdied five of the last seven holes to edge Ernie Els, who had two eagles on the back nine, that was about as good as the Masters gets, thought Byron Nelson . Now, the two-time Masters champion -- in 1937 and 1942 -- said he believed this year's tournament could be as good or even better.] The top players, they're all clicking right now, ... I'd pick one of the top five in the rankings to win it. The thing of it is, at that place, somebody always gets hot, but I don't think it'll be an unknown -- if there are really any of those at Augusta -- who will win this time. |
Arnold [Palmer} has what I call an 'Eisenhower smile'. Those two men, they'd smile and their whole faces would look so pleasant; it was like they were smiling all over. |
Every great player has learned the two Cs: how to concentrate and how to maintain composure. |
Golf is a lot like life. When you make a decision, stick with it. |
I never dreamed of anything like this, |
I played with him in a tournament in Ontario, Canada. I was leading going into the last round. He was about 45 minutes late. You could do that in those days, especially name players. He did things you'd get disqualified for now. He'd call and say, 'I'll be late, but I'll be there.' Anything to draw the people and his name drew people. He was a top showman. He was always a jolly sort of a guy. I don't know anybody who didn't like him. |
I've been fortunate all my life. I was born into a Christian family and able to stay out of jail. I've been more blessed than anybody I know in golf. |
It shows you how important one stroke really is in golf, ... One shot doesn't sound like much, but I won eight times in 1944, improved one-third of a shot in '45 and won 18 times. |
It was so much different in those days. People ran their tournaments pretty much to suit themselves. |
My God, he looks like he's beating a chicken. |
One of the things I'm most proud of looking back in my little black book is that my career had a lot of consistency, |
One way to break up any kind of tension is good deep breathing. |
Putting affects the nerves more than anything. I would actually get nauseated over three-footers. |
Sam Snead did to the tee-shot what Roger Bannister did to the four-minute mile. |
so we gave a lot of it away. |