Joost Luiten

[RJH999]

Of course he did! ;)

[Silent]

Did you pick him in the prediction contest?

Yes :-D

[Silent]

And also a birdie on 18! Great round.

[Gunther]

Nice!

[Missouri Swede]

Awesome first day out!

Hopefully we'll all be forced to learn how to pronounce his name by Sunday. Although even winning a major didn't make Louis Oosth... Owsth... Woosth... Oesth.... (dang I can't even get the first syllable) any easier to pronounce for most of us Americans.

[Silent]

Oosthuizen is actually a Dutch name also, so we're to blame I'm afraid.

[Silent]

Hope we have to get used to this:

[14ledo81]

I hope you talk his dad into having him join the forum....

[Silent]

Joost about his round on his website, translation in English: Six birdies and three bogeys today. My start was ideal. After that unfort. bogeys on 3 and 4, but a very good recovery with birdies on 6, 7 and 9. With -2 trough the turn. Excellent. It went well. I felt the speed of the green pretty good. The back nine two birdies en one bogey and a total of -3 this round. Good start. Tomorrow we continue.

[RJH999]

Onwards! You know, don't quote me but I think he would be the first person named "Joost" to win a major.

[Silent]

Luiten on American television, Q&A.; Also his thoughts about his chances qualifieng for the Ryder Cup. That he will play 2 more events after this is complete new information for me, that is not on his website. I guess he decided to do so recently given that he is so close but really needs the extra points.

Q. Give us your thoughts?
JOOST LUITEN: Well, it's always nice to open with a birdie. I hit a good drive and a good 9‑iron to like about nine feet and made the putt. So that helps. And then just had a bad swing on the third, the par3, which was also a bogey. Then another 3‑putt on the next.
You know, after that, I thought just try to hit the fairways and the greens and try to make some putts. Made a good birdie on 6 and good birdie on 7.

Q. Distances?
JOOST LUITEN: Pretty close. They were both within seven feet I think, and then on 9 was a bonus, holing a fairly long putt, I think 20 feet from the back of the green.
You just need one or two of those every round, that really helps. You know, that's the nine opening holes that you're looking for, 2‑under after nine, and then after that, I played some solid golf and tried to just, you know, hit the greens and take it from there. That's what you need to do on this course I guess.

Q. Nice to finish with a birdie, as well?
JOOST LUITEN: It is a birdie hole, especially today. The wind is helping off the right a little bit. It's a par 5 that you can reach, so that really feels like you have to make birdie there, and I'm happy that I did that. So it does help walking off that hole with another birdie in the pocket.

Q. This is a big week, but the inevitable Ryder Cup question.
JOOST LUITEN: You know it's there and you know we have a couple more weeks to qualify. I know I need to play well to have a chance to make it to the team but I just can focus on every round. I need to play good golf. That's all I need to focus on. If I do that, I might have a chance, and if I don't, then I don't have a chance. It's pretty simple in my eyes I think.

Q. You're playing in between now and the cutoff, what events will you play?
JOOST LUITEN: I will play the last two of the qualification back in Europe. So I've got three more including this one and you just need to probably win one or finish high this week.

[RJH999]

I volunteer you to start the official @JoostTracker twitter account.

[Silent]

-1 today so far, -4 total. Go go go! I feel like he is able to be T5 or higher after this round.

[RJH999]

59 Watch!

[Silent]

Haha if only... But looks like he's playing very solid. Almost 75% fairway hits this tournament. Man I hope so much he will play this whole tournament high on the leaderboards. He really needs a good finish on such a tournament once.

[RJH999]

Haha if only... But looks like he's playing very solid. Almost 75% fairway hits this tournament. Man I hope so much he will play this whole tournament high on the leaderboards. He really needs a good finish on such a tournament once.

Come on Jooooost! Official golfer of TST. Honestly was very indifferent of him before. But you have come to convert me to Joostism.

[Silent]

I'm working on that. It's not just you ofcourse, many people here need to be converted. How am I doing so far? :-P

[RJH999]

I'm working on that. It's not just you ofcourse, many people here need to be converted. How am I doing so far? :-P

Doing very well. Keep spreading the word. He'll be bigger than Jesus soon... *Gets lit on fire*