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Judging that Joost Luiten and Darius Van Driel had no chance of bringing home a medal to the Netherlands, the Batavian Olympic Committee decided not to send them to the Golf National from August 1 to 4. A “sentence” which does not pass for the six-time winner on the DP World Tour.
As we announced to you this Tuesday, June 25 in the evening, Joost Luiten and Darius Van Driel will not represent the Netherlands at the Olympic golf tournament scheduled for August 1 to 4 at Golf Nationalhas Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. So decided the Dutch Olympic Federation, judging that neither of the two golfers had the slightest chance of bringing home a medal…
A decision which obviously made both parties jump. More particularly Joost Luiten38 years old, six times winner on the European tour. In a long message published on his account Instagramthe Batavian underlined his incomprehension, he who had already been rejected for the same reasons at Tokyo in 2021 after participating in Rio Games in 2016.
« I am sad to announce that I will not participate in the 2024 Olympic Gameshe writes in his post dated Wednesday June 26, 2024. @Nocnsf will not send me even if I am qualified according to the International Golf Federation and Olympic criteria. »
« Le Nocnsf (the Dutch Olympic Committee) has its own criteria (finish in the top 8) and don’t think I have a chance of achieving this goal (on a field of 60 players) and this even though during my 18 years of professional career, I finished almost 20% of the time in a top 8 or a top 10. And it was each time in a field of 156 players. In 2023, it even represented 25%. »
« It’s just mind blowing that they say I can’t finish in the top 8 in the Olympic tournament, which proves that @Nocnsf knows nothing about golf », he added, bitterly!
The silver and bronze medalists in Tokyo in 2021 occupied 161st and 181st places in the world…
The decision of the Nocnsf not to send its two players to Paris (as well as one of the two players retained, Dewi Weber) lies in the fact that neither occupies a place among the world’s top 100. An infallible criterion according to the Dutch Olympic Committee while two of the three medalists in Tokyo were absent from this same world top 100. Slovak Rory Sabbatinisilver medal, and the Taiwanese C.T. Panbronze medal, appeared respectively in 161st and 181st places in the world.
The two Dutch players nevertheless received the support of the former victorious captain of the Ryder Cup 2018 at the Golf National, the Dane Thomas Björn. On his X account, he judged the Nocnsf decision to be “stupid”.
« The lack of understanding of golf on the part of some people is sad to see. Literally every player on the course has a chance to win a medal. I pity you guys! »
