Belen Mozo’s battle with a maddening, lingering hip injury may finally have ended her career as a tour player.
Mozo’s frustration trying to recover from a tensor fasciae latae tear that won’t seem to fully heal led her to announce that she’s leaving the game.
“When I suffered another relapse, mentally I couldn’t take it anymore,” she wrote Tuesday on her blog at belenmozo.com. “And to be completely honest with you guys, my heart wasn’t truly in it either. A lot has happened and in the process of becoming mentally stronger during this dark phase, I learned that there is a beautiful world for me out there, outside the LPGA ropes . . .
“So here I am today, announcing to you that I have decided to seek other personal opportunities outside of the LPGA tour and competitive golf. I have made peace with the fact that I will no longer compete at an elite level and I feel great about it. I have had a desirable junior career and a fruitful professional career and I am now ready to face the next stage of my life and venture into new terrains.”
Mozo, 30, helped the Spaniards win the inaugural UL International Crown in 2014. As a junior in 2006, she won the British Girls Amateur and Women’s British Amateur, becoming the first player to win both in the same year in more than three decades. She also won the European Ladies Amateur and went on to play collegiately at USC, where she was a four-time All-American. Mozo qualified for the LPGA in her first trip through Q-School in 2010 and joined the tour as a rookie in 2011. Her best LPGA finish is a tie for fourth at the Manulife Financial Classic in 2014. Her last LPGA start was 18 months ago at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open.
Mozo watched her long-time boyfriend, Robert Farah, team to win Wimbledon doubles with Juan Sebastian Cabal last weekend. She said there was great joy watching the victory.
“I want to clarify that Robert’s success didn’t propel me to make this decision,” Mozo wrote. “I definitely felt encouraged to share it publicly today with you merely from what I felt while watching Robert win. The joy I felt was not the same joy I was feeling while competing these last few years. And even though I am not closing my career for poor performance (because I got injured during one of my bests times in my career) and since I still have full status on tour if I want to come back next year, I still encouraged myself to be brace and seek new adventures.”
Mozo said she will share more on her blog in the future.
