Joost Luiten remains on the outside looking in for Olympic golf

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 152^nd 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.

Joost Luiten of Netherlands tees off on the first hole during day two of The 152nd Open championship at Royal Troon. (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

“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…