Following his 500th appearance on the DP World Tour, Graeme Storm – one of our region’s most decorated professional golfers – has called time on his playing career.
Le Golf National, site of his first win on the DP World Tour in 2007, was the perfect place to bring down the curtain on Graeme’s 23-year career as a tour professional.
“Playing 500 tournaments is an incredible milestone,” said Graeme. “Having battled injuries over the last few years, I’m happy I got there. I would have loved to have been in a position to play well and compete in the later stages of my career, but sadly that wasn’t to be.
“To bring the curtain down at Le Golf National was always my plan. It’s very close to my heart and playing my final event there, with my wife Sara on the bag and my kids watching, was very special.
“I’m very proud to have had a long career as a tour professional. Could I have won more? Absolutely, but when I look back over 23 years as a pro, I don’t think I’ve done too bad for a lad from Hartlepool who wanted to play golf for a living,” added Graeme, who added a second DP World Tour win to his CV in 2017 – beating Rory McIlroy in a playoff to win the South African Open. He also won twice on the Challenge Tour and played in all four majors.
Having developed other areas of interest since he began suffering from a wrist injury in 2018, Graeme will continue to be part of the tour – taking up a role as a rules official which will see him work at some 20 events each season.
“I’ve worked for the tour since April and will be doing my rules exams in December – which is a big step. It’s an interesting role, which I hope I can bring a lot to as an ex-player,” added Graeme.
As well as his refereeing on tour, Graeme is also keen to do more broadcasting. A regular contributor to Open Championship radio broadcasts, he was part of his first Ryder Cup with the BBC in Italy.
He will also be delivering more coaching through his academy, and continuing his role with The Golf Foundation.
“It’s going to be exciting,” added Graeme. “I’ll be coaching when I’m at home, then travelling with the tour as an official and hopefully as a broadcaster a little bit more. There are lots of avenues to go down, which is interesting and something I’m very thankful to have the opportunities to do.”
