Tour star wins court case against Olympics committee after Paris snub

From a golf perspective, it’s been the great controversy of the 2024 Olympics – and all a month before the Games even get underway. 

Joost Luiten, Darius van Driel and Dewi Weber all qualified for the Paris showpiece, but the Dutch Olympic Committee deemed the trio of having “no reasonable chance” of bringing a medal home for their country and, therefore, told they would not be put forward to compete.

The Committee’s criteria – which was amended last year – determined that, for men, anyone who finished outside the top 27 in the Olympic Golf Rankings would need at least a top-eight finish in a tournament that had five players from the top 50, or ten from the top 100, in the world.

Van Driel told bunkered last week that these “demands were way too harsh” and that they were “obviously done by a guy who doesn’t know anything about golf”.

That “guy” in question is Andre Cats, the director of the Dutch Olympic Committee, who Van Driel claimed gave him incentive to qualify before the apparent change of heart.

“They asked us to keep it quiet but Joost and I have said we’re not going to keep quiet anymore,” he added.

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A furious Luiten, though, took matters into his own hands and revealed on his Instagram feed that he had submitted a legal case against the Dutch Olympic Committee – otherwise known as the NOC NSF.

“COURT DAY!!!” he posted on his Instagram feed on Tuesday morning alongside a blacked-out version of the Olympic rings logo. “I will be fighting the decision to not send me to the Olympics by the NOC NSF in court TODAY!”

“We will put our case in front of a judge and get an independent judgement! An independent look to my case that’s something I have been looking for and know I have not been getting from the NOC NSF!”

He concluded his message with: “LET’S GOOO!!”

A few hours later, he had his verdict, and the logo was restored to its familiar colours…

“The Olympic rings are colored again,” he wrote.

“I have WON the court case and the NOC NSF have to enter me before 5pm today!!! LET’S GO!”

bunkered also reached out to Van Driel, who confirmed he is also taking legal action.

As well as the Dutch players, bunkered reported on Monday that the Olympic committees of at least two other nations are deliberating on whether or not to send their qualified golfers to compete at Le Golf National in August.

Alex Perry is the Associate Editor of bunkered. A journalist for more than 20 years, he has been a golf industry stalwart for the majority of his career and, in a five-year spell at ESPN, covered every sporting event you can think of. He completed his own Grand Slam at the 2023 Masters, having fallen in love with the sport at his hometown club of Okehampton and on the links of nearby Bude & North Cornwall.

Associate Editor