Pension parties take many forms, depending on the person and the profession.
If you are a regular insurance broker, your appointment can hold a quiet office celebration and the Jokey gift from a rocking chair. If you are a rock star, you might be more inclined to launch a farewell trip that never really ends.
But what if you are a seasoned professional golfer, not prominent enough to inspire a golf canal special, but a beloved figure who decides that the time has come to hang the spikes?
During this week’s Omega European Masters in Switzerland, DP World Tour veteran Mike Lorenzo-Vera chose a sweet and modest way to say goodbye.
His sign-off was not unexpected. In April the 40-year-old Frenchman had announced that he was planning to stop it while struggling with continuous issues of mental health care. Enough was enough. He had been working on it for 20 years, with almost 300 DP world tour and competing in Acht Majors, emphasized by a T-16 show at the PGA championship 2019 in Bethpage Black.
Tournament Golf had paid the bills and something else. But the personal costs had become too steep.
“I could have said that my wrist hurt, but was just the brain that hurt,” Lorenzo-Vera told Europeantour.com. “It is important to talk because I received many messages that say what I said was what they lived. It just gives the advice to talk to someone.”
With his decision made, were the only questions that were left for Lorenzo-Vera where, when and how.
He opted for an appropriate time and place.
For Lorenzo-Vera, the Omega European Masters are penetrated with meaning. It was while playing the event, ten years ago, that Lorenzo-Vera heard of the death of his father. He noted the tournament and his picturesque Crans-sur-Sierre location, would make the “perfect” setting to offer adieu.
The people who surrounded him were also appropriate.
In combination with friends and fellow countrymen Marciel Siem and Alexander Levy, Lorenzo-Vera placed an opening round 73, which he went back with a 75. He did not separate, but at least he had a good company that became even better towards the end of the day.
While Lorenzo-Vera marched the fairway of his last hole (the par-5, 9th hole), he was accompanied by his two young daughters.
“I hit the ball everywhere, but was least with my friends and family,” said Lorenzo-Vera.
Before his last shot as a TouringPro, he poured a putt for par. Then he embraced his play partners and with his children still walked next to him the green and in the rest of his life.
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