Exclusive: Victor Dubuisson opens up on shock retirement

It’s been seven months since Victor Dubuisson quit professional golf – and he wishes he had made that decision sooner.

The enigmatic Frenchman with the mercurial talent retired in December aged just 33, admitting that he was finding it “more and more difficult to cope with life on tour”.

In his 13-year playing career, Dubuisson won a Ryder Cup, lifted two European Tour titles, and reached a high of 15th in the world rankings. He possessed a swashbuckling swing and an extravagance that drew comparisons with Seve Ballesteros.

But Dubuisson’s reclusive nature off the golf course ignited as much intrigue as his antics on it. Fiercely private, he preferred to shun the spotlight at all costs and never wanted to delve too far into his mysterious past.

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Now, though, he finally feels free and content.

Dubuisson’s focus has shifted to coaching, where he delivers bespoke training packages to golfers from all over the world from his magnificent new base in Tenerife.

And its from a lively pro shop on the sun-drenched Canary Island that Dubuisson has agreed to this rare interview with bunkered.

“I don’t really think about my golf career at all now,” he says. “It’s in the past. Now I have new targets.

“I feel much better mentally now. With new targets with my coaching, it’s completely different. I definitely feel more happy. I was always stuck between coaching and playing. I didn’t want to go to tournaments but I was still going. I was in between two things all the time. I didn’t want it anymore. I wanted to do what I wanted to do with the coaching and do it 100%.  

“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. 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.”

Dubuisson feels he has finally found his real passion and is now fuelled by more meaningful goals. 

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“I have the same mentality for coaching as I did for golf when I was at the top. I don’t just do it to spend the time. I have really big targets and motivation. For me, it’s not a job. It’s the same mentality as competition. Now I could become one of the main coaches in Europe, not really for professional but for every level.” 

Having withdrawn from 15 events in his final three seasons on tour, there was inevitable confusion when Dubuisson’s name was listed in the field for LIV Golf’s inaugural qualifying event in Abu Dhabi, just a week before he announced his retirement.

“[LIV] offered me an invite at the last minute,” he explains. “I had many, many plans for coaching and it was difficult to throw it all away. One year of preparation for this project and I didn’t want to again be in between two things.

“That’s why I didn’t take the invite. I prefer that another guy got the invite and used it well.” 

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This was just a snippet from our wide-ranging chat with Victor Dubuisson. To read the full exclusive interview, pick up the new issue of bunkered, on-sale Wednesday 24 July from all good newsagents. Alternatively, take out a subscription here and never miss another edition.

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.