I've played with amateurs for a million years, and they just don't hit many flush shots.
— Johnny Miller
I grew up in an era where the perfect drive was a line drive, with quite a bit more spin.
I do like to point out the trick putts, the ones that look like they go one way but actually go another. I think the audience likes to know when a putt looks like it's two inches outside left, but it's actually two inches outside right.
Guys who chum it up are just OK. Guys who are great players are loners.
I remember, when I won at Tucson by nine shots in 1975, I would say the average iron shot I hit that week was no more than two feet off line. It was unbelievable.
NBC sort of let me do my thing. They never told me what to say and what not to say. It was pretty weird.
I usually listen to my gut, so to speak, and my wife.
I've had two lives. The golfing part... the younger generation sort of heard about me but maybe didn't realize I wasn't too bad at times. Then the announcing part.
All my friends were retiring, and it got to the point where I was like, 'Hey, how come I'm not retiring?'
If you don't like my announcing, you don't like me.
For me, 'choking' is just another term in golf.
Match play really exposes your character and how much of a will to win you have in your heart.
Only one golfer in a thousand grips the club lightly enough.
Tiger's swing when he won the Masters by 12 shots - I loved that swing.
Golf is the greatest sport of all to see if you can handle pressure.
The hardest weeks for me are when I get to a course that I've never been to before or one that has been through a redesign.
I always felt that I would rather be out fishing or home with my family than at some cocktail party with a group of VIPs.
When I was at my peak, I would go into streaks where I felt like it was almost magic, that I could knock down the pin from anywhere with my irons.
I've always felt how players handle the pressure was the most interesting part of golf.
Everybody has some part of their game that is easily influenced to choke.
It's been a great run. I've done everything I can do announcing wise.
In golf, 'close' is like the north and south rim of the Grand Canyon.
Most announcers play pattycake, pattycake with the players they're covering.
The mental aspect of golf is what makes golf such a great sport.
Serenity is knowing that your worst shot is still pretty good.
If I had been in the gallery, I'd have gone home.
When people pick the best drivers of all time, nobody ever picks Lee Trevino. But when he played, like at Tanglewood at the '74 PGA, he missed one fairway in 72 holes.
People need to know that when I was interviewed when I played, I would really pat myself on the back when I did well and tell you how good I was playing, but I'd also tell you when I choked or I was playing terrible. I told it like it was.
You can be a guy who won 18 majors, but that doesn't mean you'll be a great Ryder Cupper. That's the rarest golf there is.
I never really wanted to be No. 1 and a big shot, have people playing up to me all the time. I wasn't comfortable with any of it.
I was tough on myself when I didn't finish off a tournament right.
I try to really say what I think is happening, and I'm pretty forthright. I obviously hold back some things. But pretty much, what I see and feel, I say on the air.
I was always groomed by my dad to win the U.S. Open.
I was always known as the 'Desert Fox.'
There are plenty of guys who played great golf, had great careers and only won a few majors.
I don't want to brag, but I do more homework on the course than any other announcer. I chart the greens to get all the breaks. I walk down into the greenside bunkers. I walk into the fairway bunkers to see whether a player can reach the green from them.
Look, I'm not trying to be critical when I'm on the air.
Nobody ever heard Jack Nicklaus say 'I don't know' about anything.
