Hello Ariane, you stopped your career at the end of 2019, what has become of you?

I have been a sports manager at the Toulouse Golf Club since 1^er last july. I take care of the organization of the competitions, the management of the golf school, I am also responsible for the reception team. I found lots of faces that I knew, because I had already played for the club for five seasons, between 2009 and 2013.

For what reasons did you end your professional career?

I have experienced a lot of disappointments with the LET schedule. I remember a meeting in May 2017 with the European Tour, where we were told that many tournaments will ultimately be played on a reduced field, that is to say with a maximum of 70 players, which took me out of the field. . It had already been two or three years that I played fewer and fewer tournaments, in 2016 I had only played eight. This gave me a bit of disgust because, once again, I couldn't play more than seven or eight tournaments in 2017. We spend a lot of time training and ultimately very little time spent playing competitively on a journey, which is demotivating after a while. I started my first international tournaments at 15 and since that age I have never done anything other than golf, not even the slightest job. I also wanted to experience something else.

However, the new LET calendar in 2020 looked particularly attractive, before the health crisis fell on us ...

Yes it's true, but I had made my decision before the new calendar was known, I didn't want to wait anymore, I had been thinking about it for two years.

Are you not missing the adrenaline rush?

Yes, but I manage to put it on my friendly games, I play golf differently. I also took great pleasure in following the girls at Golfer's, at the beginning of October at the Bondues golf course. Plus, we brought the cup home! (Laughter)

You were champion of France at 13, is this your first great memory?

Of course. At the time, I had been coached for two years by Christophe Estermann and I owe him a lot. When he arrived in Metz, there were twelve of us at the golf school and I was the only girl. When he left, there were about fifty of us. He felt that I was good at golf and he prompted me to compete very quickly by telling me that I was capable of winning the French championships. I will always remember it, it was at the Golf National on the course of the Eagle, my mother was pregnant, almost at term, she was limiting herself to not give birth (Laughter). In the final, I found myself facing Inès Lescudier, one of the best players at the time. It was complicated to manage because we were already a bit of friends. On the green of 18, we are tied. She has a three-foot putt and I have two feet, downhill, to play. When she putts I don't want to see it, I turn my back to her and put my head in my arms. I turn around and there, she hands me my mark and says "well done, you won". She had just missed her putt by making a huge comma. It was a nice gesture on his part, because my putt was not given, especially with the stake.

What is the best memory of your career?

My victory over LETAS in 2015, in Sweden. I remember it very well because Fanny Sunesson, who caddeyé Nick Faldo then Henrik Stenson, gives me the trophy. About twenty minutes before departure on the 2nd^e turn, my back was completely blocked and I meet Fanny, who tells me that she is going to try to relax me. In the clubhouse, she made me do breathing exercises while holding my back. She thought maybe it was stress and she was probably right. Soon after, I was able to play my part painlessly. The next day for the last lap, I'm in 12^e eight-shot position and share my game with a Scottish girl (Laura Murray). We both play -7 and I, the -7, I do it on the way back! We will sign our card and there we see on TV that we are both at the top of the leaderboard! We're in a three-way play-off and, on the second hole, I have a 3,50-meter putt for the win. I had already returned almost the same a few minutes before in the same place. Marion Duvernay, who was caddeyait me, encouraged me by telling me that I returned this kind of putt most of the time. I let out a huge cry when my ball entered the hole!

Another great memory?

May 4, 2018. I play -10 in Gams, Switzerland. Ten birdies, not a bogey. I was super lucid the whole game, I was really in the moment and that's the key. I was so focused that I didn't even realize I was scoring this low. I always dreamed of being in total control of my game, from start to finish, and it happened to me that day.

And your worst memory?

In 2006, during the French championships, a year after my victory. During the first round in match-play, I was eliminated from hole n ° 12 by Agathe Sauzon, I had the impression of having lost at all holes. I was putting my title on the line, I had just won the qualifier on top of that. I rested too much on my laurels, almost forgot to play golf that day. There is also the Gaveau in Saint-Germain in 2008. I play 73 the first day, 83 the second and I miss the cut suddenly. I even had a spasmophilia attack. I wanted to put my head in a hole, like an ostrich, I kept crying. I remember the director (Francois Bardet) came to see me in the locker room to try to console me, to find out if I wanted a doctor to be called. But I was inconsolable (Laughter).

Your strong point?

The one-meter putts, I never doubted the small putts. And then the driving. I know how to drive strong and upright and I have a backup drive: I put the tee lower, the ball in the middle of the feet and this allows me to hit lower and more rolling balls.

You're strong at both ends of the game actually…

Yes, but in the middle it's more complicated! (Laughter)

In which area is it the most complicated?

Bunker exits. There for once, I always doubted! In recent years, during my warm-up before my games, every time I trained in a bunker I would do a topette of 50 meters during my first three tries. So, I was trying to find an axis with a maximum of safety margin so as not to hit a house or go on a teeing off (Laughter). And if that wasn't possible, I avoided going out of the bunker!

You said earlier that the key is to stay in the moment. What is your putting routine?

I make a large circle of the same diameter around the hole, far enough from the ball, trying to visualize the slope. When I'm fully focused it might sound crazy, but the green almost moves when I get back behind the ball. I also dig my thumbnail on my index finger to feel something and put myself in the present moment. In golf, as in life, we sometimes do things automatically while thinking of something else. I worked for two and a half years with a sports psychologist, Mélanie Maillard, who made me understand that focusing on the present moment was the key. Me, I tend to be in the projection, the analysis, the anticipation, the creativity. Too many times I have thought of hole number 5 when I had not yet attacked the green of 2.

Can you stay fully focused for 18 holes?

It's impossible. It is also important to know how to relax between shots. I remember a discussion I had with Olivier Léglise. If we assume that we need to concentrate about 1 minute 30 before each shot and that a course lasts on average, say 4:30, then the concentration time does not exceed 1:30 in total. You need to concentrate only a third of the time in golf, everything else you can think about. This helps to play down the exhausting mental side of golf. What is most exhausting is that you go through all the emotions, you can put the ball full fairway and then send it into the rough or into the water, birdie and go on with a double bogey. These are permanent ups and downs ...

Let's stay on the very high then. Have you ever completed a hole in one?

Thrice. My first was at Golfer's in Médoc in 2010. On hole 5, a small par 3 with the water on the right and the flag on the left on the green. I remember that Anne-Marie Cousse, the club's mascot, gave me a gift and that Anne-Lise Caudal, who was then my idol, was there. My ball pitched a yard behind the flag, did backspin and came in. Otherwise I made another one during a friendly game in Chiberta, on the 10. I didn't even see the ball go into the hole. And above all, I did one during a tournament in Germany, in 2014, when there were a million miles to be won at Marriot! Except that I did it during my reconnaissance party ... (Laughter)

In the same vein, Lucie André recently told us that she thought she had won a Skoda after a hole in one at a tournament in the Czech Republic, but that in fact the car was only in play for the last lap * ...

I remember I was there! I had seen it live, we were all like crazy ... (Laughter)

To conclude Ariane, what is the most common fault among amateurs according to you?

Precipitation. The more you improve, the more the pros insist on routine. It may sound boring at times, but above all it's a time to build confidence both psychological and physical. Often times I see amateurs with a wonderful routine at 1 and there is already nothing left in the middle of 3, and I hardly exaggerate. The player gets angry, lines up like a bag and lifts his club, come what may. Routine is, however, something very simple to set up.

Interview by Franck Crudo

* https://swing-feminin.com/lucie-andre-jetais-persuadee-davoir-gagne-une-voiture-apres-un-trou-en-un/