The former 65th in the world won the tender launched by the municipality.
“I trained for five years on the Cap-d’Agde golf course and very clearly, these are my best years in competition.” At 37, Mike Lorenzo Vera, who was in 65th place in the world rankings three years ago, is still fighting on the European circuit.
But the last two years, disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, have clearly not lived up to his expectations. “There was an air pocket, he acknowledges. But I feel like my game is picking up.”
A team to manage daily contingencies
The last few months have not been fruitless, however. Thanks to a call for tenders published by the municipality, Mike Lorenzo Vera has just been awarded the entire golf course in Cap-d’Agde. “My wife had been talking to me for a while now about creating my own academy”, he acknowledges. What has been done since April 1st.
Based in Girona, Spain, engaged in European tournaments several weeks a year, the player will obviously not be present on a daily basis. Benoît Clerici, recently poached from the Golf national de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, will be the director of the structure, supported by the Agathois Timothée Lopez and Nicolas Saucerotte, for the lesson part. “We start slowlywarns Mike. The new driving range is not finished yet, but we are going to have a superb tool. Which I will supplement with swing analysis tools and a gym.”
Naturally friendly, the Basque wishes “that the players who call on us have a good time above all. Afterwards, the experience will change: we want them to be able to touch the preparation of a professional player. Support them as closely as possible, so that their progress be as regular as possible.
While he is left “at least” ten years of professional career, Mike Lorenzo Vera does not refrain from developing his academy on other French golf courses. “But first we have to prove here”, he warns. On the Capagathois greens, his state of mind is already unanimous.
