Ken Venturi Quotes

Thinking instead of acting is the number one golf disease.

Competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course... the space between your ears.

Second guesses in putting are fatal.

People always say golfers don't smile. But there is so much psychology in golf so we have to be a bit robotic.

I think when it's a high-stress situation, my tennis definitely takes a big dip.

I've gotten rid of the yips four times but they hang in there. You know those two-foot downhill putts with a break? I'd rather see a rattlesnake.

The fifth set is not about tennis, it's about nerves.

When you lip out several putts in a row, you should never think that means that you're putting well. When you're putting well, the only question is what part of the hole it's going to fall in, not if it's going in.

You work every day technically, physically but so much is in the mind. Look at when players go on big scoring runs, then stop scoring. It's not that they are any different physically, it's very often mental, confidence, concentration.

The emotion to handle the pressure is one of the biggest challenges in football - it's the top challenge.

Even though I say to myself that I was seven-times World Champion, the voice in my head says, 'You can't play this shot.' It's completely mental - quite literally. My confidence is sapped every time this happens.

I'm about great competition. That's why I can have a great smile beforehand and connect with the crowd, and then, when I get in the ring, I flip that switch.

Any fight I feel pressure, just the same as the last one, the next one will be just as important.

It's frustrating not to play well.

There is pressure, and I would never complain about that, but as players we put pressure on ourselves all the time. That's one thing I won't miss when I finally stop playing.

There have been competitions where I got on the line and psyched myself out before I even let myself compete. I was thinking about the other competitors and not giving myself a fair chance. I had to shift to thinking, 'Just focus on yourself and doing what your coach has taught you to do.'

Learning to be your natural self in front of five cameras and a silent studio takes time. Trying to be funny under duress is probably a lot like trying to play golf relaxed under pressure.

I've always been a quick putter, so I should never get the yips. But I got 'em. I got 'em bad.

The hardest part of performing in the Premier League is the mental side of it, with everything being scrutinised.

Older players who have experienced failure in the past can sometimes be held back by the fear of it happening again, young ones just want to go out and play.

Winning the Olympics was an amazing feeling, but afterwards, it was a bit like, 'What do I do now?' So I lost a bit of motivation going back into training and competitions; I had so much pressure on me. I kept thinking, 'I'm the Olympic champion. I can't lose' - being only 19 and having to deal with all that pressure.

I think you get in a situation where once you start hearing the boos and hearing the radio stations talk and people on the outside begin to bring your name up of being benched, then you begin to lose focus, and now your play begins to fall and you begin to focus on other things.

In golf, driving is a game of free-swinging muscle control, while putting is something like performing eye surgery and using a bread knife for a scalpel.

Over the first three rounds you're playing the course. In the final round, if you're in contention, you're playing the man.