Longtime DP World Tour pro Joost Luiten’s long road back to the Olympics appears to be complete, thanks to a successful court case against his own country’s Olympic committee.
In case you missed it, a week ago the Associated Press reported that the Netherlands Olympic Committee (NOC) and Netherlands Sports Federation had denied Luiten and two other Dutch golfers the right to represent their country in the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris.
After qualifying for Olympics, golfers are snubbed. The explanation is baffling
But what made the situation even more frustrating for Luiten, who previously competed in the 2016 Olympics, was that he had already successfully qualified for the Olympic golf competition. Qualification is based on the Official World Golf Ranking, with the top-two players from each country earning spots in the Olympics, which increases to four players if all of them are ranked in the Top 15.
But the NOC has its own stricter qualification rules, requiring golfers to be in the top 100 in the OWGR or top 40 in the International Golf Federation ranking. When qualifying ended, Luiten was No. 147 in the OWGR and No. 40 in the IGF ranking.
The NOC argued that Luiten and the other golfers didn’t have “a reasonable chance” to finish in the top 8 at the Olympics.
Early on Tuesday, Luiten had taken to Instagram to announce he was going to court over the NOC’s decision, writing, “I will be fighting the decision to not send me to the Olympics by the NOC/NSF. We will put our case in front of a judge and get an independent judgement!!!”
Based on another Instagram Luiten posted later on Tuesday, it appears the Dutch court sided with him, ruling against the NOC.
In the second post, an exuberant Luiten wrote, “The Olympic rings are colored again. I have WON the Court case and the @NOCNSF have to enter me before 5PM today!!! LET’s GO @olympics”
He followed it up with another post showing him standing in front of the courthouse, along with the note, “SPECIAL DAY TODAY! Going to the olympics. verry happy with the victory in court.”
At this point it’s not clear whether the ruling applies to the two other Dutch golfers denied Olympic berths, or if the NOC officially registered Luiten as an Olympian. The 2024 Olympics Men’s golf competition begins Thursday, August 1.
