Ryder Cup hero tipped to make shock retirement U-turn

Could Victor Dubuisson make a shock return to professional golf?

The Ryder Cup-winning Frenchman, long known as a mercurial talent but a reluctant star, walked away from the sport almost 18 months ago to pursue a new life coaching.

In an exclusive interview with bunkered last year, the enigmatic Dubuisson explained how the “solitude and loneliness” weighed heavy on him on tour.

“I was feeling good with my game but I was just feeling bad with all the travelling and I felt like I wanted to do something else,” he said. “I was not mentally in a good place.

“I knew I was not happy anymore with this life. After 13 years I was tired of it and wanted to have a different life. Instead of doing bad things I prefer to do what I wanted to do.”

Intriguingly, however, Dubuission never shut the door completely on a possible comeback.

He was just 33 when he missed the cut in his final tournament, the Omega European Masters at Crans-Sur-Sierre.

“My game is really good,” Dubuisson said last year.

“I play very well now but playing well at tournaments is different. Maybe in a few years I will play a few events. Maybe, but not for sure. Who knows?”

Dubuisson only ever opened up to one fellow player when the walls closed in before his retirement.

• Exclusive: Victor Dubuisson opens up on shock retirement

• ‘I hate it’ – PGA Tour winner hits out at controversial new format

“I talked about it with my best friend on tour, Alexander Levy, but only to him and he was happy for me when I changed to coaching,” he said. “I don’t speak too much to people. I keep things to myself.”

Levy is here at the Turkish Airlines Open this week – a tournament synonymous with Dubuisson after he secured his only two victories here in 2013 and 2015.

During the first of those wins, Dubuisson held off a certain Tiger Woods.

It remains unclear if we will ever see this swashbuckling talent again, but Levy has raised hopes that Dubuisson could well make a comeback in the future.

Levy even hoped Dubuisson would emerge from the shadows for this week’s $2.75million event at the stunning Regnum Carya resort in Antalya.

“I say to him I’m fairly sure you’re going to come back at one point,” Levy told bunkered.co.uk.

“I hope he’s going to come back. I thought this week he was asking for an invite but he didn’t so I was pretty sad.

“But I’ve had him on the phone a couple of times and he’s happy with his life and coaching people in Tenerife. He’s enjoying his life and that’s the most important thing.”

• LIV golfer confirms PGA Championship invite

• St Andrews chief gives verdict on discounted tee times

Levy has known Dubuisson since the age of ten and was the closest confidant to a fiercely private but fascinating figure out on the DP World Tour.

“We grew up together and I think I achieved things in my career that Victor’s success helped me achieve,” the five-time tour winner added. “I have a really good relation with Victor. 

“People see only the outside of this life. For sure, when you have success but you don’t see the other side, the work, the hard things in this life. I can get that at some point you’re tired of this and you just want to be at home, chilling and do the things I want to do. 

“He didn’t enjoy travelling, living out of a suitcase and a hotel. I can understand, it’s not for everyone. It bothered him since the start.”

Ben Parsons is the Senior Writer at bunkered and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.