Furious Joost Luiten tears into officials over Olympic snub

Joost Luiten has ripped into Dutch officials for his ‘mindblowing’ snub at the Olympic Games. 

Six-time DP World Tour winner Luiten and Dutch compatriot Darius van Driel have both been informed that they are not allowed to compete in Paris this summer – because officials in the Netherlands have concluded they don’t think the duo are capable of winning medals.

The Dutch Olympic Committee (NOC*NSF) did not see Luiten, van Driel or Dewi Weber as realistic medal hopes, with Solheim Cup star Anne van Dam the only golfer they will be sending to Le Paris National.

“According to the NOC*NSF, there is no reasonable chance of a top-8 ranking in the Olympic Games [for Luiten, van Driel or Weber,”a statement issued by the Netherlands Golf Federation (NGF) read.

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It’s the second Olympics in a row that eligible Dutch players haven’t been allowed to compete at the Games by their national organisation.

And, unsurprisingly, that decision has not gone down well.

“I am very sad to say I will not play the 2024 Olympics,” Luiten wrote in a lengthy response on Instagram on Wednesday morning.

“@nocnsf will not send me even though I have qualified by the international golf federations criteria and the Olympic criteria.

“nocnsf have there own criteria (good chance to finish top 8) and they don’t think I have a chance to finish in the top 8 of The Olympics (60men field) even though over my 18 year professional career I have finished inside of the top 10 almost 20% of the time and those were 156 man fields. This was 25% in the 2023 season.

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“It’s just mindblowing that they say I can not finish top 8 at the @olympics, @nocnsf ave absolutely no clue about golf.

“Also they have changed the criteria’s in Dec 2023, if they had those criteria’s from the start in june 2023 I would have qualified at 2 seperate events. That’s even more painful to me!

“I just don’t get it! Typically Holland, they only understand the typical dutch sports, clearly not golf.So sad and painfull.”

Van Driel, who won his maiden DP World Tour title at the Kenya Open in March, was similarly outraged.

“No Olympiccs for Joost Luiten, Dewi Weber and myself although we qualified,” he wrote. The @nocnsf doesn’t have a clue about golf and it a shame we’re suffering now. We’re not going because of political reasons.

“Mistakes were made by the nederlandse.golg.federatie for agreeing with the absurd demands on national qualifications. A sad day for Dutch golf. #shame on you.”

Luiten and Van Driel are both outside the top-100 in the Official World Golf Ranking, which is understood to have played a big factor in their withdrawals by the Dutch organisers.

It should be noted, however, that at the delayed Tokyo Games in 2021, world No. 161 Rory Sabbatini won silver for Slovakia, with No. 181 C.T. Pan claiming bronze for Taiwan.

Meanwhile, former Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn has come to Luiten’s defence and blasted the “stupid” decision.

What a stupid decision…
The lack of understanding of golf from certain people is sad.
Literally every player in the field has a chance of winning a medal.
Feel for you guys, Joost

— Thomas Bjørn (@thomasbjorngolf) June 26, 2024

“What a stupid decision,” he wrote on X. “The lack of understanding of golf from certain people is sad. Literally every player in the field has a chance of winning a medal. Feel for you guys, Joost.”

The 2024 men’s Olympic golf competition will take place at Le Golf National, the home of the 2018 Ryder Cup, from August 1-4, while the women’s showpiece takes place on the same venue from August 7-10.

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.