HALE IRWIN

People have to learn who they are - you can't have somebody else telling you who you are.

People, in whatever walk of life, would be surprised if they just gave themselves a chance by believing in what they are.

Do I want to tackle a 230-pound guy who's running like a deer? Heavens no, no one in their right mind would. But there is something that drives me and compels me to stick my head in there and give it my best shot.

New Zealand has a great reputation in America for golf.

My dad was a good athlete. My mom had longevity. There were some athletic genes that certainly got passed down.

I still have the desire to succeed, and I've always felt success is measured by what you've done in the win column, not top 10s.

The best quick tip in golf is to focus on your rhythm and balance.

Yes, I applied a lot of what I did in football to golf.

I've felt that if you dwell too much on your errors, you're dealing in the negativity of things. I don't like that. I'd rather work on the positive reinforcement, the things I did well.

Feeling tired should almost never be an excuse, because your body has huge reserves of energy. But if you eat badly, stay out late, drink too much, and so on, you'll pay a price on the course.

I just never subscribed to the theory that at age 55, you fall off the face of the earth on the Tour. I always felt that was too young of an age for that.

It's a long, hard, difficult process to make it to a national championship.

The positions I played in football, being a quarterback and a defensive back, you had to kind of have a little independent thinking.

If you're not just a little bit nervous before a match, you probably don't have the expectations of yourself that you should have.

On the PGA Tour, guys finish in the top 10, make a ton of money and think they're great players. In my era, you had to win. We didn't settle for anything else.

I don't sleep well. I rehash everything in bed. The mind's still working.

Let your emotions come out. If your behavior is flat, your game will be flat, too.

I never underestimate my opponent, but I never underestimate my talents.

I can forgive the body breaking down. It's a little tougher to forgive that mental lapse.

Early in my career, my 3-, 5- and 9-irons performed differently than my other irons. But I adapted and made them work.

Competitiveness is a personality thing and competitive people don't become pushovers the day they turn fifty.

You can talk about strategy all you want, but what really matters is resiliency.

Golf is the only-est 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.

You can talk about strategy all you want, but what really matters is resilience. On the last nine holes of the Masters or the Open, there's going to come at least one point when you want to throw yourself in the nearest trash can and disappear. You know you can't hide. It's like you're walking down the fairway naked. The gallery knows what you've done, every other player knows and worst of all, you know. That's when you find out if you're a real competitor.