There isn't a hole out there [Augusta] that can't be birdied if you just think. But there isn't one that can't be double-bogeyed if you stop thinking.
Bobby JonesRead
Many shots are spoiled at the last instant by efforts to add a few more yards.
Interpretation
Striving for perfection can sometimes lead to negative results.
This quote emphasizes the importance of knowing when to stop or let things be, particularly in the pursuit of excellence. In many cases, the desire to improve or add just a little more can result in diminishing returns or even cause failure, highlighting the value of recognizing a good outcome and not jeopardizing it by overextending oneself.
In practice
This quote can be used during a meeting to remind team members to focus on quality rather than pushing for last-minute changes.
There isn't a hole out there [Augusta] that can't be birdied if you just think. But there isn't one that can't be double-bogeyed if you stop thinking.
The real way to enjoy playing golf is to take pleasure not in the score, but in the execution of strokes.
As I see it, the thing that hurt my putting most when it was bad, was thinking too much about how I was making the stroke and not enough about getting the ball in the hole.
The 'enemy' in golf is tension.
Golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course
He [the golfer] must have the courage to keep trying in the face of ill luck or disappointment, and timidity to appreciate and appraise the dangers of each stroke, and to curb the desire to take chances beyond reasonable hope of success.
Hell is full of good intentions and wills.
Sincerity is not a test of truth. We must not make this mistake: He must be right; he's so sincere. Because, it is possible to be sincerely wrong. We can only judge truth by truth and sincerity by sincerity.
It is easy enough to arouse in a listener a desire for what is honorable; for in every one of us nature has laid the foundations or sown the seeds of the virtues. We are born to them all, all of us, and when a person comes along with the necessary stimulus, then those qualities of the personality are awakened, so to speak, from their slumber.
Saddest of all are the women who were brought up to believe that self-sacrifice is the highest female virtue. They made the sacrifice, often willingly, and they are still waiting for the blessing.
Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.
Nobody is going to pour truth into your brain. It's something you have to find out for yourself.
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