Why Some Tour Golfers Walk Away From The Game

View From The Fairway by Derek Clements

Twelve months after the tragic death of American golfer Grayson Murray, we are once again reminded of just how tough life as a tournament professional can be.

You may remember a golfer called Aaron Wise. In 2018 he won the Byron Nelson Classic at the age of 21 in what was only his 26th start on the PGA Tour. He was later named rookie of the year.

He seemed to have the world at his feet and was being spoken about in some quarters as being "the next big thing". It did not quite work out that way for the young American, although he did manage to climb to 33rd place in the world rankings and accumulated prize money of more than $12m. He seemed to be living the dream.

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But suddenly, everything that had come so easily for him became a struggle and it all came to a head in March 2023 when he announced that he was withdrawing from The Masters.

He wrote on social media at the time: "This hurts, but it’s needed. See you soon. Golf is just as much a mental game as it is one of physical skill, and the mental piece of it has been a struggle for me recently. I don’t take the significance of playing at Augusta lightly, but know that I need to take some time away to focus on my mental health so I can get back to competing at a level I am proud of."

He played in four more tournaments in 2023 and then took a break from the game. But he has recently decided that the time is right for a return and he played in the Myrtle Beach Classic, announcing his return in a video on Instagram in which he said: "You’re on this planet for a long time and you never know what’s going to happen. 

"There’s bad breaks that could happen out there, there’s bad holes you could have, and just being able to bounce back from those sort of things and monitor the round as it’s going and keep myself kind of level would be a huge advantage playing golf.

"I can approach every situation I’m in with a totally different mindset. I go through the day that I just had and I think of four positive things that happened, I think of one negative thing that happened and one way that I could change that negative thing if it ever happens again to make it better. 

"Something like that just changes your whole mood around in five or 10 minutes. It makes a big difference. To just get through the day with so much more positive thinking and to be so much happier has made me so much stronger."

News has also emerged that Mike Lorenzo-Vera, the popular French golfer, has decided to quit the DP World Tour 20 years after turning professional.

Like Wise, Lorenza-Vera had taken a break from the game last year after suffering panic attacks and crippling anxiety. It was all the more surprising because he is one of the more outgoing personalities in the European game.

In October last year he told Bunkered about his battles with his mental health. He said at the time: "I started to scream and feel like I was drowning."

He returned at the Dubai Desert Classic in January but has now announced his retirement at the age of just 40. He said: “It was fun, it was hard, it was fantastic, but I can’t do that anymore."

Fellow French golfer Romain Langasque said he was surprised. "He looked in good shape at the start of the year. But he’s been playing for 20 years as a professional and he wanted to do something else. Sometimes you need to just take a decision."

It is all a timely reminder of the pressure professional sportsmen are under. If golfers don’t make cuts then they don’t get paid - but they still have to find the money to pay for flights, hotels and their caddies. It is little wonder that it all becomes too much for some.

I once believed that Victor Dubuisson was another who was going to enjoy a long and brilliant career. But he also decided that the pressure just wasn’t worth the effort and stress.

Still only 34 years of age, it is saddening that he has now all but given up the game. To describe him as enigmatic is something of an understatement. When he was good he was sensational, possessing powers of recovery of which Seve Ballesteros would have been proud but  in December 2023 he announced that he was retiring from the game. It was a huge loss to the sport.

He is now working as a club pro and coach in Tenerife and has admitted that he has seldom felt happier. "I don’t really think about my golf career at all now," he said in an exclusive interview with Bunkered. "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.

"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."