Joost Luiten

[Silent]

Good group. Sure hope Colsaerts finds his game again.

Yea, his results in 2014 on the European Tour are disastrous. Besides a second place in Malaysia is his best performance a T59 at the French Open and 4 missed cuts in 9 tournaments.

[Gunther]

Yea, his results in 2014 on the European Tour are disastrous. Besides a second place in Malaysia is his best performance a T59 at the French Open and 4 missed cuts in 9 tournaments.

Another Euro who fell off the planet a couple years ago that I miss watching is Alvaro Quiros. Believe it or not, I enjoyed watching him swing mid to short irons as much or more than his driver. Seen him in bits and bites lately, hope he's getting it back as well.

[RJH999]

Another Euro who fell off the planet a couple years ago that I miss watching is Alvaro Quiros. Believe it or not, I enjoyed watching him swing mid to short irons as much or more than his driver. Seen him in bits and bites lately, hope he's getting it back as well.

Yep. I was a big fan of Quiros. Hit it a mile. He's been near the top of the leaderboard in a fee events this year..

[Silent]

Solid start from Luiten at the Czech Masters: -1 after 4 holes.

[Silent]

After 10 holes at level par. Struggeling to make birdies.

[Silent]

-2 now, going well. Colsaerts is... well, I have no idea what he's doing, but he's on +5.

[Silent]

Luiten in the clubhouse at -2 (three birdies, one bogey). No birdies at any of the four par-5 holes.

Not a bad round, also not extremeley impressive. Will be somewhere in the top 25 after day 1 I suspect. Played better then the other players in his group (Wiesberger level par, Colsaerts +4).

[Silent]

Besides Luiten 2 more Dutchies in the top 25: Sluiter and upcoming star Daan Huizing both on -3. Huizing already started his second round with a birdie on the first: -4 and T5.

[Silent]

Luiten and Wiesberger taking the ice bucket challenge for ALS

[Silent]

Both Huizing and Sluiter are on T5 now at -4. Not sure if I've ever seen that before :P

Luiten is at -2, wil tee off in three hours from now at 12:55

[Silent]

Luiten in his blog for the KLM Open (KLM is also a big sponsor of Luiten)

I won last year’s KLM Open, so that makes things extra exciting. I’m the titleholder. In terms of the world rankings, it doesn’t matter which tournament you win, but the KLM Open is special to me, of course, because it’s a Dutch tournament. In fact, it’s the only Dutch tournament. As a Dutch golfer in a Dutch tournament, I get a lot of attention from the press. That’s great because it gives me the opportunity to create more awareness for the game. And it certainly helps if you win!

Around 25 tournaments a year

There is an amazing number of tournaments all over the world. You can’t take part in all of them because you would get overloaded. So I make a schedule of the ones I want to play. The world’s leading golfers take part in between 20 and 25 tournaments a year. I’ll take part in 30 this year. Apart from the KLM Open, all of these are abroad, so I don’t get as much attention there. Media attention usually goes to the local heroes.

Coverage is important for players because it’s important to sponsors. It’s all part of the show. But it shouldn’t get in the way of the game. When I won the KLM Open, I received so many requests for interviews and all sorts of offers. New pictures have to be taken everywhere. It takes time and you can’t do it all, no matter how much fun it is. I have to train and I have to perform. That’s what it’s all about.

The risks of the course

Tournaments always begin on Thursdays. That week, I always maintain a fixed routine in order to prepare. I arrive on Tuesday and play nine holes to start my practice. Wednesday is Pro-Am day. The forty highest-ranking pros play against amateurs, who are the sponsors. That’s the nice thing about golf. The handicap system allows everyone to play against each other. As a sponsor, you can play a game of tennis against Roger Federer, but he’ll wipe you off the court. For us, this presents a great opportunity to engage with the sponsors and to familiarise ourselves with the golf course — to check out the riskiest spots. At the end of the day, I do a workout and my physiotherapist comes round to attend to any minor injuries.

On Thursday, depending on my starting time, I always try to be at the course an hour and 45 minutes before I have to tee off. My physiotherapist attends to me for 45 minutes. He loosens me up and gives me some exercises to get me ready. Then, 50 minutes ahead of time, I warm up on the driving range before walking to the first tee to start my first round. You either begin around 9.00 o’clock or around noon. If you start early one day, you’ll start late the next day. The people with the best scores on Thursday and Friday get the best starting times on the weekend.

Choosing the right club

For a normal kind of guy like me, from a small town, this is a very different world. That was already the case when I started at the age of nine . Back then it was a game for the rich, but I never let that stop me. I just liked the game. And as far as I could tell, the other people at the club thought it was pretty funny — that little boy who played so well. A lot has changed since those days. There are still a few traditional clubs, but there are now 175 golf courses in the Netherlands, so there’s always a club nearby that is open to everyone. It’s a bit like choosing the right school.

The KLM Open is almost here. I’m the titleholder, which means extra pressure. On the other hand, I’ve already won it once, which means there’s less to be lost and more to be won!

[Crim]

Both Huizing and Sluiter are on T5 now at -4. Not sure if I've ever seen that before :P

Luiten is at -2, wil tee off in three hours from now at 12:55

None of them are playing particularly well today :(

[Silent]

Bad round for Luiten so far, +2. Level par overall en dancing around the cut line. His little vacation didn't do him much good it seems. With Donaldson and Gallacher who play pretty well so far it seems that the Ryder Cup is out of range for Luiten now...

[Silent]

Two birdies in a row now, good.

[Silent]

With three birdies on the back nine Luiten did recover a little bit. However T29 is a bit disappointing. If he wants something, he needs to get low on moving day. 6 shots behind the leader Donaldson is a lot, but not impossible if he manages to shoot <67

[Crim]

Not a great round for Mr. Joost. +2 with three holes to play.

[Silent]

Not good at all. Looks like the season is just a little bit too long for him.

[Silent]

Another disapointting round (+2). Huizing and Sluiter both top 25. Donaldson wins and is now, if nothing really weird will happen, certain of Ryder Cup golf next month. Luiten will have to watch it at the television. He was close, but looking at his season honest, he just was not good enough. Am confident he will grow and have a good chance in two years.