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Who really said it

It's hard not to play golf that's up to Jack Nicklaus standards when you are Jack Nicklaus

Attributed to Jack Nicklaus Jack Nicklaus b. 1940 · American golfer, 18-time major champion
Attributed In copyright

Wikiquote’s sourced entry credits the remark to Nicklaus on WINS Radio on 28 May 1984, said on winning what it calls his 70th PGA tournament. The win is real: Nicklaus took the 1984 Memorial Tournament, his own event, beating Andy Bean in a sudden-death playoff. We have not been able to read or hear the broadcast, and nothing outside Wikiquote independently attests the wording — so this is honestly an attribution, not a verified quotation.

Last verified 7 Oct 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Unconfirmed quote & credit

“It's hard not to play golf that's up to Jack Nicklaus standards when you are Jack Nicklaus” Jack Nicklaus, quoted on WINS Radio, 28 May 1984, after winning the Memorial Tournament: “It's hard not to play golf that's up to Jack Nicklaus standards when you are Jack Nicklaus.” Attribution per Wikiquote's sourced entry; the broadcast itself has not been consulted.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Jack Nicklaus). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Jack Nicklaus — American golfer, winner of 18 major championships. Theme: "It's hard not to play golf that's up to Jack Nicklaus standards when you are Jack Nicklaus". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "It's hard not to play golf that's up to Jack Nicklaus standards when you are Jack Nicklaus". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Cited source
WINS Radio, New York — 28 May 1984
Occasion
Winning the Memorial Tournament, Muirfield Village, in a playoff over Andy Bean
Recorded in
Wikiquote, Jack Nicklaus (sourced section)
Status
Attributed — the broadcast has not been consulted

It’s hard not to play golf that’s up to Jack Nicklaus standards when you are Jack Nicklaus.

Wikiquote italicises are, which is how the joke lands. One detail in its citation does not check out: it describes the win as Nicklaus’s 70th PGA tournament, while Wikipedia’s numbered list of his 73 PGA Tour victories makes the 1984 Memorial his 72nd, dated 27 May 1984. We report both rather than pick one.

Wikiquote’s sourced entry for Jack Nicklaus

How we verified this

  • The quotation and its citation come from the sourced section of Wikiquote’s Jack Nicklaus page ↗, which gives “On winning his 70th PGA tournament, WINS Radio (May 28, 1984)”.
  • The occasion is independently confirmed: Wikipedia’s Memorial Tournament page ↗ records that in 1984 Nicklaus beat Andy Bean in a sudden-death playoff to become the event’s first two-time winner, citing a New York Times report of 28 May 1984.
  • The win-number detail does not confirm. Wikipedia’s numbered list of Nicklaus’s 73 PGA Tour wins ↗ puts the 1984 Memorial at number 72, on 27 May 1984, and number 70 at the 1980 PGA Championship. We have left Wikiquote’s figure attributed to Wikiquote rather than adopting it.
  • Searches for an independent printing of the sentence return only Wikiquote and quotation aggregators that reproduce it, so the wording has a single root. That is why this page says attributed rather than verified.
In copyright

A remark broadcast in 1984. Anything published that recently is treated here as in copyright: the words are the speaker’s, and any recording or transcript of the broadcast would belong to its maker. Quoting a single sentence for commentary and attribution is a separate question from reuse.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Context

Why it mattered

By 1984 Nicklaus was 44 and winning rarely — this was only his second PGA Tour title since 1980, and it would be his second-to-last. The line is funny because it inverts the complaint being put to him: asked whether he was playing to his own standard, he pointed out that the standard is named after him.

It landed at his own tournament, on a course he designed, which is about as much home advantage as golf allows. He had founded the Memorial in 1976 and won the first one in 1977; this victory made him its first two-time champion.

The standard he was being measured against was named after him.

Read the full story

The 1984 Memorial finished eight under par at 280, with Nicklaus beating Andy Bean in sudden death. Two years later he won the Masters at 46, the last and most celebrated of his 18 major championships.

A note on why this page stops at “attributed”: a radio remark leaves almost no durable record. The citation is specific and plausible and the occasion is real, but the artefact that would settle the wording — the broadcast, or a contemporary transcript of it — is not something we can reach, and this site does not call a quotation verified on someone else’s citation alone.

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Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

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Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Jack Nicklausen.wikiquote.org

The sourced entry this attribution rests on: both quotations with their publication citations.
Jack Nicklausen.wikipedia.org

Career overview and life dates (born 21 January 1940); 73 PGA Tour wins and 18 majors.
Career achievements by Jack Nicklausen.wikipedia.org

The numbered list of all 73 PGA Tour victories with dates — the reference used to check the win-count claim attached to this quote.
Memorial Tournamenten.wikipedia.org

Confirms the 1984 playoff win over Andy Bean and the tournament history Nicklaus founded in 1976.
Andy Beanen.wikipedia.org

The player Nicklaus beat in the 1984 sudden-death playoff.

The author

About Jack Nicklaus

Jack Nicklaus

b. 1940 · American golfer, winner of 18 major championships

Jack Nicklaus, born in Columbus, Ohio on 21 January 1940 and known as the Golden Bear, is generally regarded as one of the greatest golfers who ever played. He won 18 professional major championships and 73 PGA Tour events, the third-highest total in tour history. He founded the Memorial Tournament in 1976 at Muirfield Village, the Ohio course he co-designed, and has since built one of the world’s largest golf-course design practices.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Best available citation (Chicago)

Nicklaus, Jack. Remark on WINS Radio, New York, 28 May 1984, on winning the Memorial Tournament. Quoted in Wikiquote, “Jack Nicklaus”, sourced section. Broadcast not consulted.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘It's hard not to play golf that's up to Jack Nicklaus standards when you are Jack Nicklaus’?” Last verified 7 Oct 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/its-hard-not-to-play-golf-thats-up-to-jack-nicklaus/

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