Shy Dubuisson just wants action to start

For someone who lists ‘socialising’ as one of his interests and has the nickname D’Artagnan, the tag of being the ‘Greta Garbo of golf’ appears at odds for someone like Victor Dubuisson.

However, unlike the famous reclusive Hollywood star of cinema’s golden age, Dubuisson, 24, does not want to be alone, he’d just rather do his socialising out of the glare of the media and has a prickly relationship with journalists in his homeland.

“They will ask you one question about golf and then nine questions about private life, things like that, because they only want to make the story,” he said yesterday as he faced the biggest press conference audience of his fledgling career in the Ryder Cup media centre at Gleneagles and unsurprisingly did not look entirely at ease in the spotlight. Nor does it appear that talking in English was the problem, “he comes across better in English than he does in French,” observed a Paris-based journalist.

A Ryder Cup does not appear to be up Dubuisson’s boulevard, yet being out on the course, pleasing crowds, is what he craves most, his attacking golf game a contradiction with his defensive public persona.

“I really enjoy the crowd and people, all the expectation and the attention. Yeah, it’s really good, because people, they are really here to support us. This morning at like 8.30, it was really cold outside and there was already 500 people waiting on the range. So it’s really pleasant and I think the least we can do is to give them back what they do for us.”

No wonder they call him enigmatic. When he won the lucrative Turkish Airlines Open last November in the penultimate Race To Dubai tournament, he placed one foot in Paul McGinley’s team for Gleneagles, the other following in February when he reached the final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play in Tucson.

That gave McGinley plenty of time to get to know the player most of his peers found difficult to work out. The Irishman, displaying the man management skills that set him apart as a captain, discovered the Frenchman loved Formula 1, rang up his good friend Eddie Jordan and asked him to invite Dubuisson onto his yacht during the Monaco Grand Prix.

Now his new team-mates are joining the mission, according to potential playing partner Graeme McDowell. He’s a very talented kid. someone we are trying to pay a bit of attention to in the team room this week and make sure any questions on his mind get answered and get him ready to play some great golf,” McDowell said.