'Complete bullsh*t': DP World Tour winner hits out after being denied Olympics entry
Six-time DP World Tour winner Joost Luiten has told GolfMagic of his frustration at being denied a place in the Olympic Golf Tournament in Paris by his own Dutch officials.
Joost Luiten has revealed the decision by the Dutch Sports Federation to deny him a place in the 2024 Olympic Golf Tournament at Le Golf National is 'complete bullsh*t' .
Luiten, 38, is a six-time winner on the DP World Tour and he was fully exempt to compete in the 60-man Olympic Golf Tournament this August based on his ranking of 40th in the Olympic Golf Ranking (OGR) by the cut-off point.
The International Olympic Committee and International Golf Federation allow each country to have up to two golfers in the Olympic Games unless they have more than two in the top 15 in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR), in which case they can have up to four players reach the 60-player field.
The only country this applies to in 2024 is the United States, with Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa.
However, the Netherlands Olympic Committee / Dutch Sports Federation have other ideas as they have set up internal standards in place whereby if they do not believe you have a "realistic chance" of finishing in the top eight in the Olympics, then you will be denied a place in the Games.
In other words, if they don't think you are good enough to come close to bringing home a medal, then they won't even be prepared to stick you on a KLM flight to Paris.
Related: Which players are in the 2024 Olympic Men's Golf Tournament?
Of the Dutch Sports Federation's decision to deny players entry into the 2024 Olympic Golf Tournaments for both men and women, an official said: "After a careful analysis of the results in golf, it has become clear that the requirement from the IOC does not provide sufficient prospect of achieving a position in the top eight of the field."
After recently learning his fate that he would not be representing the Netherlands for a second consecutive time at the Olympics, a disgruntled Luiten told GolfMagic today:
"It is complete bullsh*t, the criteria they have since the start of the Olympics. I've been fighting with them for years now and they still don't get it."
The decision by the Netherlands Olympic Committee becomes an even more baffling one when you consider Rory Sabbatini of Slovakia won a silver medal at the 2020 Olympic Golf Tournament (played in 2021 due to covid) in Tokyo having started the week 161st in the OWGR.
Even CT Pan, ranked 181st at the time in the OWGR, came through a seven-man playoff that included Rory McIlroy to pick up a bronze medal for Taiwan.
Luiten, who currently ranks 148th in the OWGR as of this week, thinks his Dutch officials must have missed the allocation of medals on the podium last time out in Japan:
"That's the thing, they just don't understand golf!"
PGA Tour superstar Schauffele landed the gold medal for the United States last time out.
Prior to that in 2016, England's Justin Rose won gold, with Henrik Stenson of Sweden taking silver and USA's Matt Kuchar picking up bronze.
Luiten has since taken to his Instagram to reveal further frustration.
Check out his post here, and scroll down for more comments he gave to GolfMagic...
What becomes even more agonising for Luiten is that the Dutch Sports Federation added an alternative path last fall for players that failed to meet the first requirement of being in the top 27 (men) in the Olympic Golf Ranking (OGR) and top 24 (women).
None of the Netherlands' four eligible players met the above requirement for 2024.
The top OGR ranking at the cutoff date was held by Anne van Dam (34th), followed by Luiten (40th), Darius van Driel (50th) and Dewi Weber (58th).
The alternative path allowed players in the top 59 in the OGR to designate up to eight tournaments with a 'strong field of participants' and if they finished inside the top eight in any of those events then they would receive a free pass to the Olympic Games by Dutch authorities.
But Luiten claims there have only been three eligible DP World Tour events - and not eight - for him to qualify through since the new path was set up at the back end of last season.
Had Dutch officials set this particular path up for its players 12 months ago, then Luiten would have qualified for the 2024 Olympics in two separate events - a solo second at the BMW International Open and a tie for eighth at the Betfred British Masters.
Luiten added:
"There have only been three events that fall within the rules since December. If they would had done this from the beginning of qualification in June 2023 then I would have qualified in two separate tournaments. These changes make it even more painful for me."
Luiten did get to represent the Netherlands at the Olympics in 2016 where he finished T27.
But he was denied a place in the Games for the same reason in 2021.
Ladies European Tour star van Dam finished runner-up finish in the Tour Championship last fall, and therefore she is the sole Dutch golf representative at the 2024 Olympics, as was the case when she finished 57th in Tokyo.
The LPGA Tour thought Weber had done enough to book her spot in the Olympics last week, and they even posted a congratulatory message to her on social media.
As a result, Weber received a flood of congratulatory text messages, all a week before her wedding.
Only she had to respond to everyone telling them that she had been denied a debut in the Olympics by her own Dutch officials.
"Our own country is saying we don't think you're worthy of being an Olympian, and you're not worthy of representing the Netherlands," Weber told Golf Digest.
"That honestly, that hurts. We even asked them, 'Hey, is this about money? Like, we will pay for it ourselves. Our Federation will pay for it', and they said no, we just don't think you're worth it going to the Olympics.
"That is such a hurtful and sad message to send to elite athletes like us who have proven, according to the IOC and IGF standards, that we are worthy of doing that and we want nothing more than to represent our country and do all the things that the Olympics are about."
