Masters, Tiger Woods inspired Dubuisson to play golf

Victor Dubuisson made a name for himself as the cactus-thrashing desert escape artist in a dramatic WGC Match Play final.

Now the 23-year-old Frenchman will get to show off his long, straight drives and sterling short game among the azaleas at Augusta National Golf Club.

It’s the place that first inspired him at age 6 to play the game.

“I started to play golf after I watched Tiger (Woods) on TV winning this Masters, and, yeah, it means a lot for me to play … to play there at Augusta,” he said. “I don’t really feel any pressure to go there. I’m more like, happy because I still watch sometimes this recording video of this 1997 Masters. I’m more happy to go there. I don’t really think about the performance yet but I’m sure I will when I will arrive on the golf course.”

Dubuisson inspired thoughts of Seve Ballesteros with his short-game escape magic under pressure at the Match Play – getting up-and-down from bunkers, cactus and rocks on four consecutive elimination holes before bowing to winner Jason Day. Fellow Frenchman Thomas Levet believes he might also inspire his homeland in Seve-like fashion.

“It would be a big boom if a guy like him shows up like Seve did in Spain,” Levet said of Dubuisson’s potential to influence the game’s growth in France. “For example, golf in Spain went up from 50,000 people to 600,000 in no time. That’s what I hope one day a guy like him can do. If Victor can win one big one, it could make things happen.”

That’s certainly what happened with Dubuisson. Before turning 7 he was inspired to take up the game after watching Woods dismantle the field and Augusta National in the 1997 Masters. For a child unfamiliar with the game, he has perfect recall to Woods’ inaugural major triumph.

“He was 4‑over after nine holes,” Dubuisson said. “Everybody was saying, OK, Tiger, he made a good start as a pro, but now that it’s an important tournament, his first major, he’s not going to do very well, maybe because of the pressure. And then he just completely broke the course, he broke the record.”

What was it about Woods’ performance that captured his fancy?

“Just every shot, every fantastic shot he hit during the tournament and the way he was,” Dubuisson said. “I was very impressed by just the way he was hitting his driver. I was not really a golfer at this time, so, yeah, I started to dream to do the same as all the kids.”

Dubuisson claims to have played golf every day since – even leaving school by age 12 to concentrate more on his chosen sport. Any questions that raises about his upbringing get quickly shut down.

“I was doing some work at home but I was more going to the golf every day, yeah,” he said. “I was more by myself, yeah. No, just no personal family questions. I don’t like to think about that, sorry.”

Levet encourages the nosy to stop digging.

“It was not an easy childhood,” he said of Dubuisson. “When you leave school at 10 or 12 and the parents are not that much around because they need to work, it’s difficult. So you don’t want to talk about bad things. You just go with that – it was difficult.”

He was the former No. 1 amateur in the world after winning the European Amateur in 2009 and qualifying for the 2010 British Open at St. Andrews.

Now he’s 23rd in the world after winning his first big event at the Turkish Airlines Open over Woods and then starring in the final match at the WGC Match Play.

“That exercise is very difficult for him,” Levet said of the media obligations. “He’s feeling the pressure more coming here (interview room) than he would on the first tee.”

From the French town of Cannes but living in the Pyrenees tax haven Andorra that’s wedged between France and Spain, Dubuisson carries a sports pedigree with him. His uncle, Hervé Dubuisson, was an Olympian for France’s national basketball team in 1984.

“He was like the Kobe Bryant of France,” Levet said.

Victor followed a different sports muse.

“I liked to play basketball, but I prefer to be on my own … to be in control what I do,” he said. “Basketball, it was great, but I don’t really like to depend on other people.”

He’ll rely on Levet, however, to help him negotiate Augusta. Levet – who lost in a four-way British Open playoff in 2002 – played in three Masters before becoming a regular on the French TV broadcast from Augusta. His advice helped another Frenchman, Gregory Havret, get through 27 holes of the 2011 Masters on the leaderboard before collapsing to miss the cut.

“On the back nine he started to play off the book that we wrote for the proper strategy,” Levet said of Havret. “The most important is to put in a strategy and no matter what happens you follow it and never go away from it. It’s only on the last five or six holes that you’re going to go for broke or not depending on the situation.”

Levet believes Dubuisson has the talent and drive to become a major winner.

“I don’t see that many players out there who love the game as much as he does,” Levet said. “You will not see him for hours on the range, but you will see him for thousands of hours on the golf course.”

Dubuisson hopes to fulfill that ambition once he fully matures.

“I think with my game, one day I can win a major,” he said. “In those big tournaments, you need to have the game. But then to finish the job, you need to have good mental, and I think that’s maybe more important than the game, yeah.”