Parenting & Family Quote by Lee Trevino

Regret lands hardest when it’s spoken by someone whose job description is victory. Lee Trevino’s line is disarming because it swaps the familiar sports narrative - grind, sacrifice, legacy - for something quieter and more indicting: the idea that the real deficit isn’t a missed putt, but missed afternoons. Coming from an athlete who made a life on tour, the confession reads less like sentiment and more like a postgame stat you can’t argue with.

The specific intent is corrective, almost parental in itself: a warning aimed at anyone who’s treating time like an endless resource. Trevino doesn’t romanticize his career or demonize it; he names the trade plainly. “First set of children” carries a blunt, lived-in specificity that hints at complicated family chapters - multiple marriages, multiple timelines, the way fame can fracture a life into eras. It also implies an uncomfortable truth: you can love your kids and still let your calendar vote against them.

“Quality time” is a loaded phrase in modern work culture, often used as a guilt-salving substitute for presence. Trevino repeats it - “more time… more quality time” - as if testing whether the concept holds up when you’re on the far side of success. The subtext is that achievement has a way of laundering absence into necessity, until the scoreboard changes and the costs become visible.

In a culture that still applauds obsession, this is an athlete admitting the comeback story doesn’t always happen on the course. It’s a recalibration of what “winning” means when the audience you most needed wasn’t in the stands.