Joost Luiten

[Silent]

I decided to open a specific topic about the Dutch golfer Joost Luiten. That way people who are not interested in my posts about him won't be bothered in regular topics (not that I will never mention him ever there), and people who are interested in Luiten can follow interesting things here. Today I seeked contact with his father trough his official website to ask him if I can use updates on his personal site here (translated by me) or if they can do anything else for me to put here (for example little reports about his experience on PGA Tour events). I just got an e-mail back sending his phone number asking me to call him so hopefully something nice will come out of that; I will do so tomorrow.

Anyway, I couldn't help noticing that Luiten is not very familiar by golf fans in the USA. That makes sence, since he mostly plays on the European Tour and this year is the first time within the top 50 of the world (so also the first year he plays all the big tournaments). His track record last year and this year is quite impressive, yet to be honest on the really big tournaments his performance was slightly disappointing. Augusta T26 was fine (considering it was his debut there). The lack of one really big result on one of those tournaments is THE reason he is not in the Ryder Cup yet. In points he is very close, and with a good result on the PGA Championship he might get there after all......

Luiten, born in 1986, went pro in 2006. Before that, as an amateur, he won in 2004 the Dutch Boys Championship, Dutch Youths Championship and the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters. In 2005 he won both the Spanish as the German amateur championships. In teams he won in 2006 the Eisenhower Trophy where he played his final 5 holes in -6 (which gave him a wild card for the KLM Open, finishing 2nd), the Bonallack Trophy and the Palmer Cup.

As a pro he won on the Challenge Tour the Allianz Open of Toulouse (2007) and on the Alps Tour Circolo Rapallo Open. His first 'real' victory (European Tour) came in 2011, Ishkandar Johor Open. In the meantime Luiten suffered from a wrist injury which costed him quite some time. 2013 he really put himself on the map with two victorys in one year, the Austrian Open and on home soil his biggest and nicest victory ever on the KLM Open. That vicotry placed him on top of the Ryder Cup rankings at that moment. He ended the year within the top 50 of the world for the first time, as a result he will play in almost every 'big' tournament in 2014.

In 2013/2014 he played twice in a team match for Europe. At the Seve Trophy he was the best debut player ever (with Lourdy) winning all their matches together; his single match was lost though, but Europe won the trophy for the first time in over ten years. On request by McGinlay he also played for Europe in the EurAsia Cup. Pairing with Dubuisson they won 1 match and they lost 1, and at the singles Luiten was the only player for Europe (besides Jimenez) who won his singles match, resulting in a tie for the trophy.

In 2014 he is having quite a solid year. Playing steady, having a lot of high finishes and until a few weeks ago barely missed a cut. Only thing missing is a victory, came close a couple of times (twice missed by 1 shot).

Hope this is interesting for at least some of you, and maybe you will check his scores now every now and then (ánd you know now a little bit who Luiten is when you see him on the leaderboard). I will use this topic to update on his performances, and it can also used for discussion about him, his performances, the tournaments he plays him (who knows, maybe next year full time on the PGA Tour), news etc. Thanks for reading and participating!

[Abu3baid]

Cool... Very interesting.. Can I ask you is there a specific reason you like him this much? I'm assuming otbisba because you are Dutch so pleas correct me if I'm wrong! I look forward I at least recognizing his name when I watch!

[Silent]

Cool... Very interesting.. Can I ask you is there a specific reason you like him this much? I'm assuming otbisba because you are Dutch so pleas correct me if I'm wrong! I look forward I at least recognizing his name when I watch!

Thank you. You are right, it's mainly because he is Dutch, and good Dutch golfplayers are very rare. In fact he's the first Dutchy ever to be in the top 50 of the world ranking, and was the first one to made the cut at the Masters. As a result his performance is quite important in making the golf sport more popular here in the Netherlands.

[RJH999]

Still not totally convinced about the brother thing....I do love some Dutch golfers though. I generally like all Dutch...except for Arjen Robben....and RVP....Joost is a sneaky good European. Kind of like Stephen Gallacher or maybe Jamie Donaldson. Not a lot of attention, but very good. I remember he fired the low round on sunday at Augusta....I propose that this be the Dutch golfer thread....considering I can name 3 dutch golfer I think I watch WAY too much European golf at 2 in the morning....

[Gunther]

Cool idea @silent. Hope the old man lets you post some timeline stuff about ol Joost. Definitely interested.

[Silent]

Luiten will tee off in one of the earliest groups tomorrow at the PGA Championship: 7:40 local time, paired with Charles Howell III and Aaron Krueger.

Tee time on friday will be 12:50

[Silent]

Ok, I just got of the phone with Nico Luiten, Joost's father. Very nice man.

He doesn't mind at all (in fact, he was quite enthusiastic) if I translate Joost his updates (little reports after every round) from the website and place it here. Also other interesting content ofcourse. I also asked him if Joost might want to write something about his experience on PGA Tournaments specific but at this time that is not possible and he doesn't want to 'bother' Joost with that now.

If I have any other questions or I need his help he told me I could contact him again, so that is a nice thing to know. I was thinking about contacting him next month asking if we on this forum can collect some questions for Joost and in time he can answer that? Let's say a maximum of 10 questions, would you guys be interested in that? Not sure Joost/Nico are open to that but hey, a man can ask :-)

[boogielicious]

I decided to open a specific topic about the Dutch golfer Joost Luiten. That way people who are not interested in my posts about him won't be bothered in regular topics (not that I will never mention him ever there), and people who are interested in Luiten can follow interesting things here. Today I seeked contact with his father trough his official website to ask him if I can use updates on his personal site here (translated by me) or if they can do anything else for me to put here (for example little reports about his experience on PGA Tour events). I just got an e-mail back sending his phone number asking me to call him so hopefully something nice will come out of that; I will do so tomorrow.

Anyway, I couldn't help noticing that Luiten is not very familiar by golf fans in the USA. That makes sence, since he mostly plays on the European Tour and this year is the first time within the top 50 of the world (so also the first year he plays all the big tournaments). His track record last year and this year is quite impressive, yet to be honest on the really big tournaments his performance was slightly disappointing. Augusta T26 was fine (considering it was his debut there). The lack of one really big result on one of those tournaments is THE reason he is not in the Ryder Cup yet. In points he is very close, and with a good result on the PGA Championship he might get there after all......

Luiten, born in 1986, went pro in 2006. Before that, as an amateur, he won in 2004 the Dutch Boys Championship, Dutch Youths Championship and the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters. In 2005 he won both the Spanish as the German amateur championships. In teams he won in 2006 the Eisenhower Trophy where he played his final 5 holes in -6 (which gave him a wild card for the KLM Open, finishing 2nd), the Bonallack Trophy and the Palmer Cup.

As a pro he won on the Challenge Tour the Allianz Open of Toulouse (2007) and on the Alps Tour Circolo Rapallo Open. His first 'real' victory (European Tour) came in 2011, Ishkandar Johor Open. In the meantime Luiten suffered from a wrist injury which costed him quite some time. 2013 he really put himself on the map with two victorys in one year, the Austrian Open and on home soil his biggest and nicest victory ever on the KLM Open. That vicotry placed him on top of the Ryder Cup rankings at that moment. He ended the year within the top 50 of the world for the first time, as a result he will play in almost every 'big' tournament in 2014.

In 2013/2014 he played twice in a team match for Europe. At the Seve Trophy he was the best debut player ever (with Lourdy) winning all their matches together; his single match was lost though, but Europe won the trophy for the first time in over ten years. On request by McGinlay he also played for Europe in the EurAsia Cup. Pairing with Dubuisson they won 1 match and they lost 1, and at the singles Luiten was the only player for Europe (besides Jimenez) who won his singles match, resulting in a tie for the trophy.

In 2014 he is having quite a solid year. Playing steady, having a lot of high finishes and until a few weeks ago barely missed a cut. Only thing missing is a victory, came close a couple of times (twice missed by 1 shot).

Hope this is interesting for at least some of you, and maybe you will check his scores now every now and then (ánd you know now a little bit who Luiten is when you see him on the leaderboard). I will use this topic to update on his performances, and it can also used for discussion about him, his performances, the tournaments he plays him (who knows, maybe next year full time on the PGA Tour), news etc. Thanks for reading and participating!

Thanks for posting @Silent

[FarawayFairways]

To be honest with you Silent, I had a feeling they'd co-operate with you, so I'm pleased to read that. I'm not really sure golfers are the best sportsmen for fan engagement. Track and Field, Tennis players, and Cricketers are some of the best I can think of

Golfers spend a lot of time travelling though, so he does have spare hours on his hands. It's not going to do him any harm to engage with an American facing website at all. It's in his interests to do so. Also, whether he likes it or not (and he needs to embrace it really) he stands on the verge of becoming the Netherlands ambassador for golf and has a wider responsibility to both the sport within the Nethrlands, and even the country, similar perhaps in concept to that which befell Bernhard Langer, if not matched in scale, and not as yet in achievement

[RJH999]

Good news!

[14ledo81]

Interesting stuff.  Cool that you were able to talk to his dad.

[Ernest Jones]

I'm pretty sure I'm making a dog's lunch out of the pronunciation but every time I read this guys name this starts to play in my head.

[Gunther]

I'm pretty sure I'm making a dog's lunch out of the pronunciation but every time I read this guys name this starts to play in my head.

Ha, funny. No idea how this stuff pops into your head.

[Ernest Jones]

Ha, funny. No idea how this stuff pops into your head.

Well, like I said, probably making a dog's lunch out of the pronunciation but...Joost Luiten...Juice Newton...no? Tap, tap. Is this thing on?

[Silent]

I think 'Joost' will be quite doable for you to pronounce. 'Luiten' however will be quite a different story ;-) Anyway, thanks guys. I will try to keep this topic interesting for you and will hopefully succeed in that.

[FarawayFairways]

Sorry that's unacceptable, if we're going to adopt him, we need to know his name to give us the high moral ground when discussing him!

I'd Joost is pronouned You-St

and Luiten might be more difficult

If it were French it'd be Lee-Ten. It looks like is should Loo-Ten, but I think I'd pronounce it Loyt-En

[Gunther]

Well, like I said, probably making a dog's lunch out of the pronunciation but...Joost Luiten...Juice Newton...no? Tap, tap. Is this thing on?

Ha, yeah, that's exactly what it looks like and how I would want to pronounce it too but I don't have the wit to connect it to ol Juice. I think it's actually pronounced Lowton where the ow sounds like how.

[Silent]

Sorry that's unacceptable, if we're going to adopt him, we need to know his name to give us the high moral ground when discussing him!

I'd Joost is pronouned You-St

and Luiten might be more difficult

If it were French it'd be Lee-Ten. It looks like is should Loo-Ten, but I think I'd pronounce it Loyt-En

Fair enough.

Joost is not pronounced as You-St, but as Yo-St.

Luiten I really can not explain, since how we pronounce 'ui' is not a sound in English. But you will hear his name several times in this highlight video of day 4 from the KLM Open which he won in a play off against Jimenez :)