Tony Ruggiero: Why Every Great Player Is Selfish | The Golf Parent

Tour coach Tony Ruggiero says the best players in the world are all self-centered, and that some of them just hide it better than others. He knew it would make people angry. He said it anyway.

👉 Full episode: youtu.be/8B_2A0V646A

Tony Ruggiero hosts TOUR COACH, has been on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio since 2007, and runs Dewsweepers Golf. He has coached players the whole way up, from junior golf through college to the PGA Tour, including Smylie Kaufman, Robby Shelton, and Davis Riley. He has watched this from closer range than almost anyone talking about it online.

The argument is not that selfishness is a virtue. It's that protecting your time, your practice, your energy, and your attention becomes a job requirement at the highest level, when everyone in your life wants a piece of all four. Tony's claim is that this is close to universal among the very best, whether or not they present that way in public.

Worth being precise about who this applies to. Tony is describing adult professionals whose income depends on their own performance. He is not describing a twelve-year-old. Selfishness is not a skill you install early and grow into, it's a cost the best ones end up paying, and most would tell you the bill comes due somewhere.

Which leaves the question this episode keeps circling: if your child ever gets there, do you want them to have to become that? And are you ready for what it costs you when they do?

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