TROON, Scotland – Joost Luiten remains on the outside looking in to represent the Netherlands in the men’s golf competition at the Olympics in Paris in a few weeks but he’s planning a pretty good consolation prize. Luiten booked a holiday in Mallorca, one of Spain’s Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, which he noted isn’t too far away should a competitor withdraw and he get a spot from the reallocation list.
Luiten, a native of the Netherlands, qualified for the Summer Games in Paris but his governing body for golf decided not to send him and compatriot Darius van Driel. Luiten wrote on social media that the Dutch Olympic Committee required the likelihood of a top-eight finish in the 60-man, 72-hole competition and denied him because it did not feel he would be able to do so.
Luiten, a 38-year-old DP World Tour veteran, said he spent $20,000 on legal fees to take his case to a Netherlands court, which ruled in his favor. But the International Golf Federation already had given his spot in the 60-man Olympic field to Finland’s Tapio Pulkkanen. The IGF, which administers golf in the Olympics, announced last week that IOC turned down a proposal to expand the men’s field to 61 to give Luiten a spot. Instead, he was named the first reserve.
“I’m the one who is out. I’m the one who is fu**ed,” said Luiten after shooting 76 at Royal Troon on Friday in the second round of the 152nd British Open. “I’m over it now. I spent a lot of money on a court case to win it and then you win it and then they say, f*** it, you’re still not in because someone else f***ed up. That’s the annoying thing.
“It’s mistake after mistake after mistake and no one wants to own up to it and nobody wants to make it right and now I’m in a position where I don’t know what to do.”
Luiten previously competed in the Olympics in 2016 in Rio de Janiero. What was Luiten’s initial response when he was informed that even though he won his court case against the Dutch Olympic Committee, he still wouldn’t be in the field?
“This can’t be right,” he said. “I was entered before the deadline. The IGF gave my spot away even though I notified them not to give it away because I’m going to court. They say they followed the protocol.
“They all point to each other. They’re just a bunch of amateurs. They think they run a professional golf event but you can see it’s the Olympics, it’s run by amateurs.”
Asked what should be done to ensure this doesn’t happen again, Luiten said, “I think they should make it an amateur event. If you let amateurs decide for professional golfers then you get some weird rulings and whatever. That’s what happened in Holland with me. You’ve got a bunch of amateurs making the rules for professional golf events. That’s the way the Olympics started and that’s the way it should be.”
Luiten said he’s disappointed but he’s come to terms with getting a raw deal.
“I could take them to court again but then you spend another $100,000 and you don’t know if you’re going to win for an event that you don’t even get paid for. I spent $20,000 and I’m done with it,” he said. “It’s the Olympics but with all the stuff going on it has lost some of its – what’s the word? – glamour.
“I don’t know what I’d do if I get the call but right now I’m happy not to play. I’m quite done with it. I’ll be quite happy when I’m in Mallorca and I’m in the pool.”
Luiten shot 75-76 at Royal Troon this week to miss the cut.