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Dan Jenkins Quotes

Powerful Dan Jenkins for Daily Growth

About Dan Jenkins

Dan Jenkins (1928-2017), an acclaimed American sportswriter and novelist, was born in Fort Worth, Texas on November 24, 1928. He is renowned for his witty, insightful, and often satirical portrayals of the world of sports, particularly golf and college football. Jenkins's passion for storytelling began early; he wrote his first book, "The Six," a collection of stories about high school sports, at the age of 16. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, Jenkins attended Texas Christian University, where he edited the school newspaper and met his lifelong friend and fellow sportswriter Dan McDonald. In 1953, Jenkins began his professional career at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as a sports reporter. He later moved to Sports Illustrated in 1960, where he remained for over two decades, producing some of his most famous works. His first novel, "Semi-Tough" (1972), is a humorous take on the world of professional football and was adapted into a film starring Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson. Jenkins's other notable works include "Dead Solid Perfect" (1985), a novel about golf, and "Bojangles: A Novel of John Thompson" (1993), a biographical fiction about the legendary college basketball coach. His last book, "Jimmy the Greek: A Novel," was published in 2004. Throughout his career, Jenkins won numerous awards, including three National Magazine Awards and the PEN Center USA West Lifetime Achievement Award for Journalism. He passed away on February 9, 2017, leaving behind a legacy of compelling sports narratives that continue to resonate with readers today.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"You can't have everything in life, but you can always have the memories...and I think that's what it's all about."

Dan Jenkins' quote emphasizes the value of cherished memories over material possessions in life. He suggests that while one may not be able to attain everything, the recollections and experiences gained are enduring and significant. These memories serve as a testament to our lives, shaping our identities and personal growth. This perspective invites us to focus on creating meaningful experiences rather than solely acquiring wealth or things.

"Golf is a game where the more you practice, the luckier you get."

This quote emphasizes that golf, like many other skills-based activities, requires consistent practice to increase one's chances of success. Essentially, it suggests that with more practice, you improve your abilities, which can then lead to better results, giving the impression that you are becoming "luckier" on the course due to your enhanced skillset. In reality, this perceived luck is simply the result of dedication and hard work in improving one's golf game.

"I've learned that hitting a golf ball 300 yards is a beautiful thing, but being at peace with oneself is more important."

This quote emphasizes the duality between physical achievement and personal inner peace in life. The act of hitting a golf ball 300 yards symbolically represents success or accomplishment in one's chosen field. However, Dan Jenkins suggests that such external achievements are not the ultimate measure of one's life. Instead, finding inner peace and self-acceptance is more significant. This means that personal growth, emotional stability, and contentment should take priority over material success or fleeting moments of glory. Essentially, the quote encourages us to strive for excellence while maintaining a balance between our professional lives and personal well-being.

"In golf, as in life, it's the follow-through that makes the difference."

This quote by Dan Jenkins emphasizes the importance of consistency and completion in both golf and life. The "follow-through" in golf refers to the motion made after striking the ball, ensuring proper direction and distance. Similarly, in life, the actions taken after making a decision or committing to something determine its success or failure. Therefore, this quote encourages perseverance, diligence, and completing tasks effectively, as it is these qualities that ultimately distinguish achievements from mere attempts.

"Golf: A game in which you yell 'fore,' shoot six, and write down five."

This quote humorously captures the essence of golf as a sport where players often shout "fore" (warning others of an errant ball) more than necessary, experience higher scores than ideal, and record lower numbers (scores) in their scorecards due to the higher-than-expected number of strokes taken.

High school golf, college golf and the decade that followed all come back to me now as one big raucous, goofy gangsome.

- Dan Jenkins

College, Big, Decade, Goofy

You count a man's U.S. Amateur titles after he starts winning professional majors. That's something any intelligent golf writer with a sense of history is supposed to know.

- Dan Jenkins

Winning, Sense, Count, Amateur

Historians tell us that a gentleman named John Ball once captured eight British Amateur titles.

- Dan Jenkins

Tell, Historians, Named, Amateur

Though it was never a goal in life, it has occurred to me that I've met six presidents of the United States. OK, I met four of them before they became president, including Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, No. 43.

- Dan Jenkins

Became, Nixon, Reagan, Ford

It must be the PGA Championship if it's August and you can sit down and talk to the heat or reach inside your shirt, where it's 110 degrees, and grab handfuls of humidity.

- Dan Jenkins

Heat, Reach, Your, August

The PGA Championship, last of the majors each year, might well be accustomed to having fun poked at it by the print press for being mired in August, but this isn't fair.

- Dan Jenkins

Last, Having, Mired, August

Among the many things that have slipped up on me while my back was turned are all of these challenging and well-manicured public courses that have sprung up across America with elegant bars and restaurants.

- Dan Jenkins

Courses, Turned, Sprung, Bars

When you're a fledgling youth-type adult, it appears that all people in their 40s look old enough to be in a painting hanging on the wall of a stately home in England. It's not until you limp into your 70s that people in their 40s look too young to vote, and college cheerleaders closely resemble Yorkshire terriers.

- Dan Jenkins

College, Young, Cheerleaders, Yorkshire

A sportswriter's life means never sitting with your wife or family at the games. Still working after everyone has gone to the party... Digging beneath a coach's lies, not to forget those of athletic directors and general managers and owners of pro teams. Keeping a confidence. Risking it.

- Dan Jenkins

Directors, Your, Owners, Risking

When I was a lad in my 20s, as carefree and debonair as any other underpaid newspaperman, I happened to be a golfer who could flirt with par fairly often, and I was adventurous enough in those days to play any known or unknown thief who showed up at Goat Hills for whatever amount he fancied.

- Dan Jenkins

Play, Other, Thief, Unknown

I don't know how television or radio is going to survive without newspapers because that's where they get all their news. It's going to be hopeless.

- Dan Jenkins

News, Survive, Going, Hopeless

Nobody can make a putt that breaks to the right. It's unnatural. Unless you're left-handed, of course. Standing over a putt that breaks to the right can actually make you dizzy. I've long thought that right-breaking putts are a major contributor to mental and physical ill health.

- Dan Jenkins

Thought, Long, Mental, Left-Handed

The key to any good sports story is identifying the defining moment. In football games or a boxing match, it's usually pretty obvious. But in golf, sometimes it happens on Thursday. Usually it's Sunday, but guys who don't know the game, they can miss it.

- Dan Jenkins

Game, Sometimes, Identifying, Defining

In a story, you have to have a theme and an angle, you have to have a beginning, middle and an end. You have to have a defining moment and kick it to death. You gotta be able to recognize that, by the way. It probably takes experience.

- Dan Jenkins

Death, Beginning, Middle, Defining

The ocean-bordered southern part of California has always been a place of Hollywood make-believe, casual opulence, suntans and jewelry.

- Dan Jenkins

Jewelry, Always, Southern, Opulence

If you see a player out in public having dinner, chances are he's with his boring money manager or some boring rich guy he hopes to design a golf course for.

- Dan Jenkins

Manager, Some, Having, Chances

The reason I wrote about women's golf is because I've helped out some with the Kathy Whitworth Cup, a tournament they have in Fort Worth every year where they invite 60 of the best junior golfers in the country and even some foreign players.

- Dan Jenkins

Reason, Country, Some, Junior

My aunt got me interested in journalism - she found an old typewriter, had it worked over, put it on the dining room table, gave me a stack of paper and said, 'Play like you're a writer.'

- Dan Jenkins

Play, Had, Stack, Aunt

You must remind yourself at all times that the golf ball is nothing. It's an object. It's something to be swatted and sometimes lost and not even looked for.

- Dan Jenkins

Sometimes, Nothing, Looked, Object

The recreational golfer who gives it careful thought will conclude that the favorite golf hole in his life played downhill, gradually or severely, and normally was downwind as well.

- Dan Jenkins

Thought, Will, Careful, Recreational

Tiger Woods was a month away from 34 years of age when his debutantes began turning up in the news. He was a grown man with a wife and two children. Well, we supposed he had a wife, but that was before we learned she was only an ornament.

- Dan Jenkins

Away, Before, Had, None

The greatly anticipated 2009 Masters was like going to a Broadway hit and finding out that the star, Sir Tiger Woods, was off that night, and his replacement was the cab driver who dropped you off at the theater.

- Dan Jenkins

Cab, Broadway, Dropped, None

There's nothing anyone can do about Tiger Woods but look at his game and swoon.

- Dan Jenkins

Game, His, Anyone, None

I don't have contempt for Tiger Woods.

- Dan Jenkins

Woods, Tiger, Contempt, None

Nobody else is Tiger Woods. Not on this planet.

- Dan Jenkins

Planet, Nobody Else, Else, None

I get 'USA Today,' the 'New York Times,' 'Wall Street Journal' and the 'Star-Telegram' at my doorstep. I can't do without them.

- Dan Jenkins

New, Them, USA, Journal

Sally Jenkins of the 'Washington Post' is the best sports columnist in the country. Second best is Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN.com, and third is Dan Wetzel on Yahoo!

- Dan Jenkins

Sports, Country, Gene, Columnist

Vijay Singh won a playoff in 2004 at Whistling Straits after a final-round 76, which was the highest last round by the winner of any major since 1938, when Reg Whitcombe won the British Open with a 78 in a storm that blew down the exhibition tent at Sandwich.

- Dan Jenkins

Tent, British, Whistling, Blew

If you want to put golf back on the front pages again, and you don't have a Bobby Jones or a Francis Ouimet handy, here's what you do: You send an aging Jack Nicklaus out in the last round of the Masters and let him kill more foreigners than a general named Eisenhower.

- Dan Jenkins

Here, Foreigners, Named, Francis

The golf ball has no sense at all, which is why it has to be given stern lectures constantly, especially during the act of putting.

- Dan Jenkins

Which, Given, Putting, Lectures

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