Brian Ortega Quotes

I couldn't control Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Tom Watson or Lee Trevino. The only person I could control was me. The only person I could prepare for events was me. And if I didn't play well, I didn't play well, and I wasn't going to compete.

All I can do is control my preparation process from both a physical and mental stand point.

When I started playing well all I wanted to do was win. Which was a problem. When it became clear I wasn't going to win, I would get fed up. I played poorly on a few Sundays, finishing 50th because I wasn't interested in finishing 30th. But I've learned not to do that.

I try to take everything in my stride and remain humble, and to enjoy playing as much as possible.

Our number one opponents are not Liverpool, Arsenal or Manchester United. It is ourselves at Chelsea.

I sort of set myself really high standards which is good and bad. If I know that I've done all I can to prepare, that's when I race the best and in '09 I was going through a lot of emotional ups and downs and I was never as fit as I would have liked to have been. So I never felt comfortable.

I've always been strong-minded, but I wonder.

You can't please everybody all the time, but I think for the most part we tend to maintain a healthy level of self-reference to kind of make sure we continue to push things forward.

Self-improvement is the name of the game, and your primary objective is to strengthen yourself, not to destroy an opponent.

The only one who can beat me is me.

It's in the act of having to do things that you don't want to that you learn something about moving past the self. Past the ego.

I question myself every day. That's what I still find motivating about this. I don't have the answers, I don't pretend that I do just because I won the match. Just keep fighting and maybe something good happens.

The genuine truth, and I do think about this a lot, is that I'm one of the least competitive people you'll ever meet. Except with myself.

There are times I am happy. There are times I am sad. But I always try to separate emotion from the need to reach for something stronger, deeper. And then no matter the emotion, I can reach for a stability that helps me accomplish what is the goal.

I think the attitude I was trying to learn myself was to really try hard, to give a great effort, to really care, and to let the results go where they are going to go. But at the same time, I don't have to be happy, and I shouldn't be happy, with less than my best.

My mum has always said I am too hard on myself. But I have always been like that and it has always helped me. After matches I focus only on what I did wrong. Never what I did well.

I have learned that I really do have discipline, self-control, and patience. But they were given to me as a seed, and it's up to me to choose to develop them.

I'm a pro. I understand you check your ego at the door. If you don't have it that night, you don't have it that night. But sometimes you're like, 'Give me that opportunity to grind through this'.

I can control what I can control. I just focus on me, and that's it.

I just have to be better. There's not much else to say.

I'm my own harshest critic but I'm also master of my own destiny.

As a player, you just want to focus on controlling the controllables.

I have many aspects of my game I need to improve, and that's what I am focusing on. I prefer not to say what they are in public - for me, it's a secret, and I just want to work hard.

Every player has to figure out what works best for them. So yes, I like the way I work, and if that gives me a competitive edge, that's great and if it doesn't that's okay too.

What we can control is our readiness.