Victor Dubuisson: ‘I was tired of pro golf – now I have a completely different life’

Victor Dubuisson answers the phone from a lively pro shop in Tenerife. Another busy day in paradise lies ahead.

“It’s a dream here,” he says. “The weather, the golf course. A dream.”

It’s now over a year since Dubuisson quit professional golf aged 33 and he wishes he had made that decision sooner. The mysterious Frenchman with the mercurial talent has found his haven on the sun-drenched Canary Island, spending long but rewarding days coaching on its magnificent golf courses. And for the first time in a very long time, he seems content.

Unshackled from the solitude that weighed ‘extremely heavy’ playing out on tour, Dubuisson begins this rare interview by telling bunkered he is now working for a French travel agency, delivering bespoke training packages to golfers from all over the world. “It’s from Saturday to Saturday, playing, practising,” he explains. “It’s like an academy.”

Based at Abama Golf – dubbed the Augusta of Europe – Dubuisson is imparting his wisdom to everyone from budding pros to 30 handicappers. Brendan Breen, the Irish manager of the luxury resort, has taken him under his wing.

“I’ve had a very warm welcome here,” he says. “We have an amazing academy, a 350-yard range, wedging area. It’s the best place I’ve seen in my life for practising. I was very lucky that Brendan welcomed me so well. He has helped me a lot.

“I spend time with many different people every week and I’ve made many new friends. When you spend a week with people you get to know them. I’ve met many, many nice people and it’s a completely different life.”

Playing competitive golf or not, Dubuisson will forever remain a fascinating figure.

At his pomp he was truly box-office. His swashbuckling swing and extravagance allowed him to do just about anything he wanted with a golf ball. Nick Faldo would liken him to Seve Ballesteros and nobody would bat an eye-lid.

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But Dubuisson’s reclusive streak always ignited as much intrigue as his capability on the course. His Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley once claimed he matched his Hollywood looks with “flair and charisma” – yet Dubuisson shunned the spotlight like it was the plague.

We know that he left school at an early age to pursue golf – “it was 10 or 12, something like that” – but the rest of his personal life is shrouded in secrecy. There are rumours of darkness in his childhood, but Dubuisson has never wanted to delve too far into his past. Fiercely private throughout his career, that particular riddle still endures.

What we can be sure about is that once inside the ropes, Dubuisson was always a ferocious competitor.

“When I started, my mother and sister had no money so I was very motivated with money for the first year,” he says. “I had to make money. But then no. It’s not the money.

“To have the feeling when you win, it’s a special feeling. It’s a feeling you cannot describe. You can only have it in golf because it’s so difficult. It’s special when you make your last putt on a Sunday afternoon. With golf you always have 90% disappointment and 10% of happiness. When you do well you really need to enjoy it.”

And, at times, Dubuisson did enjoy it. This walking, rarely talking, enigma rose to world no.1 in a sparkling amateur career before he turned professional in 2010.

It was in 2013 that Dubuisson really exploded onto the scene, though, emerging from a star-studded field that included Tiger Woods to win the Turkish Airlines Open. Woods was the childhood hero Dubuisson obsessed over when practising on his own as a teenager in Cannes. He still looks back at that maiden victory with great pride.

Then there was the WGC Match Play a few months later, when he took down the likes of Graeme McDowell, Bubba Watson and Ernie Els before losing in an epic 23-hole finale to Jason Day in the Arizona desert. An impossible escape from underneath a cactus plant stunned fans and players alike. Dubuisson quickly had tongues wagging across the Atlantic.

And if he does have any regrets about his career – he doesn’t have many – it’s that he didn’t then make the most of his reward. A special temporary PGA Tour membership would have allowed Dubuisson to fulfil his dream of playing more golf Stateside, but he still only played five events on the American circuit in his two most prolific seasons.

“I maybe regret not playing more on the PGA Tour,” he says. “But it was complicated with my family. I made some different choices and I’m very happy with the life I have.”

The highlight of his playing career, though?

“The Ryder Cup, for sure,” he beams. Dubuisson speaks with such warmth as he reflects on a magical week at Gleneagles in 2014.

“It was amazing, the feeling of playing the Ryder Cup,” he says. “It’s a completely different tournament. I won in Turkey, played many majors, played well at the US PGA in Valhalla, made many top-tens, but this was completely different. You feel much more stress, but it’s a good stress. I was very nervous the day before starting but when you’re on the course you don’t feel nervous.

“You are in your small bubble and you focus. The day before it was difficult to sleep. It’s completely different than playing for ourselves. It’s the best feeling, but it can be the worst feeling if you miss. The feeling is multiplied because you play for a team. We are not used to it in golf.”

Captain McGinley knew he had a conundrum with Dubuisson, however. How do you integrate this unique introvert into a European team full of big personalities like Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia when he would probably rather be alone?

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As McGinley so often did, he found the solution. Dubuisson was paired with the wily McDowell and given licence to flourish. He finished with two and a half points from three and hailed as Europe’s new poster boy.

“Graeme was very important,” Dubuisson stresses. “We knew a few weeks before that we were going to play together. We created a special relationship. He taught me everything, to manage the stress, the short game, he was a big, big help.

“And winning the title, that’s why I’m…” he pauses, “I could have done much better in my career, but I’m still very happy with what I’ve done.”

Nobody knew then that was about as good as it got for Dubuisson. He won the same title back in Turkey in 2015 and reached a high of 15th in the world rankings. There were a few other close shaves with silverware, too. But Dubuisson was always a reluctant star. As he continued to dodge the media and grew his reputation as a loner on tour, his game began to suffer.

There were health issues, too. After recovering from an extensive sinus operation, he ripped an eardrum on a flight home from the Open de Espana in April 2018. The serious injury kept him out for a season and derailed slim hopes of playing in a home Ryder Cup. But there was also a sense of disillusionment with the game.

Dubuisson seemed happiest on the water and found the rush of adrenaline that he might have been missing on the course with a big catch whilst fishing. Life wasn’t all about golf anymore.

It all came to a head when the pandemic struck. Dubuisson spent those months of isolation in his longtime home in Andorra and when he returned, he knew he’d had enough.

“After Covid, the travel, the hotel, being alone every week, always struggling with travelling and being away from home all the time,” he explains. “I was feeling very bad going to tournaments. I didn’t want to go but I was still going. 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. After 13 years I was tired of it and wanted to have a different life.”

In his final three seasons as a DP World Tour player, Dubuisson withdrew from 15 events. The walls were closing in. As you might expect, though, he would refuse to open up.

“I keep it all to myself,” he admits. “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. I don’t speak too much to people. I keep things to myself. Especially for big decisions. I’m happy to have made this decision. I knew I was not happy anymore with this life. Instead of doing bad things I prefer to do what I wanted to do.”

Dubuisson played his final tour event at the Omega European Masters in September 2023, finishing T76. But the seeds for his transition to coaching had been sewn long before.

“It’s been many years I’ve wanted to do coaching,” he says. “It’s always a better satisfaction to see people playing better than yourself. I just enjoy it. I have a lot of patience, I like to help people and I can teach things you can only learn when you play high level golf.”

There was confusion, therefore, when Dubuisson’s name was listed in the field for LIV Golf’s inaugural qualifying event in Abu Dhabi, just a week before announcing his retirement.

“They offered me an invite at the last minute,” he says. “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.”

Dubuisson’s decision is paying off and he is now fuelled by other goals.

“I feel much better mentally now,” he says. “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 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.”

It’s not that Dubuisson doesn’t care about the professional game, either. It’s just not for him anymore. “Every Sunday I watch golf,” he says. “I like to watch Scottie Scheffler. He’s the best of the best. When I see friends playing like Kiradech Aphibarnrat in the playoffs in Singapore, I was very happy for him. I was not feeling like ‘oh I want to be there.’ I was not feeling at all like this. When I watch the golf I am happy for the guys to play well. I don’t feel like I want to be there. I think more about my next day coaching.”

And for those who argue Dubuisson was a light that flickered all too briefly, he has a strong response: “I don’t feel bad. The people don’t know about my life. I don’t really think about my golf career at all now. It’s in the past. Now I have new targets.”

So is this really the end for Dubuisson in professional golf?

“My game is really good,” he laughs, revealing he’s lined up a summer trip from Tenerife to his other paradise, Gleneagles. “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?”

Not even Victor.

This interview came from our August-September 2024 issue of bunkered. For more interviews like this, 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.