Joost Luiten

[Silent]

-6, battling with Gallacher now. Otto still 3 shots away.

[RJH999]

Had to check the scores from a restaurant's wifi :) Joost at T9, but that Otto guy seems quite far away. A good round today and Luiten has a top position. Are You watching McGinley?

[quote name="Silent" url="/t/76327/joost-luiten/200_40#post_1048862"]Eagle on the first! T4 now. Maybe I should find myself a sportsbar here in Belgium. Will it be worth a fight with my wife over that? :-P[/quote] [quote name="Silent" url="/t/76327/joost-luiten/200_40#post_1048871"]-4 at the turn and T3, come on! Gallacher is at 2, looks like he's going to qualify for the Ryder Cup instead of McDowell.[/quote] LOL. You one devoted ass Super Joost fan! ------------ Somebody named Hennie Otto looks like he'll win.

[Silent]

:-) Ended his round with another birdie at -7 for the day; very impressive. T4. Gallacher misses Ryder Cup qualification by 1 stroke (!). But he'll get a wild card no doubt. And Luiten? MicGinley knows his season is KLM Open very important so he will try to peek in September. Will it be enough?

[RJH999]

:-) Ended his round with another birdie at -7 for the day; very impressive. T4. Gallacher misses Ryder Cup qualification by 1 stroke (!). But he'll get a wild card no doubt. And Luiten? MicGinley knows his season is KLM Open very important so he will try to peek in September. Will it be enough?

Well McGinley has to choose on tuesday. Gotta be Westwood, Poulter, and Gallacher.

[ChrisP]

Luiten's chances of being picked for the Ryder Cup team are about as good as Jason Kokrak being picked on the US side. It's not gonna happen. Westwood, Poulter, Gallacher, Donald, Molinari, Jiminez...these are all guys likely being considered before Luiten's name even comes up.

I don't mean to ruin your day, just being realistic.

[RJH999]

Luiten's chances of being picked for the Ryder Cup team are about as good as Jason Kokrak being picked on the US side. It's not gonna happen. Westwood, Poulter, Gallacher, Donald, Molinari, Jiminez...these are all guys likely being considered before Luiten's name even comes up.

I'd throw in Jimenez as one of the "not gonna happen" as well. He's played like shit since May. But I concur.

[ChrisP]

I'd throw in Jimenez as one of the "not gonna happen" as well. He's played like shit since May.

But I concur.

Agree. I think it's really down to Westwood, Poulter, Donald and Gallacher. Barring a miracle, it's gonna be 3 of those 4. And I think Westwood and Gallacher are locks to be 2 of them. One's hot and local, the other brings a lot of experience (plus he had a good PGA).

[Silent]

If there's one player in the list who doesn't deserved to be picked, it's Westwood. Not an impressive season at all. Gallacher will be in for sure, and I think Donald and Molinari as well.

[Silent]

Joost Luiten @joostluiten Didn't make the rydercup this year! I just wasn't good enough this time. Team looks strong. We will come back in 2016 and make it. Go europe 8 uur geleden

[tomvk77]

Surprised he chose Westwood. He didn't play good at all this season.

Poults for sure, he always did well in Ryder cups and is a great motivator.

To bad Joost didn't make it, but think his season was just not good enough.

On the other hand looks like he is getting his A game again. Last results where good.

And he is still number 17 in the race to dubai standings.

[Silent]

Woohoo, today I had contact with his father again. I asked him to make a price availbale for a prediction contest and he will send a glove signed by Joost Luiten :-D I made a specific topic for that, please check it out.

[RJH999]

Woohoo, today I had contact with his father again. I asked him to make a price availbale for a prediction contest and he will send a glove signed by Joost Luiten :-D I made a specific topic for that, please check it out.

Great. Papa Joost is the Official Father Of A Pro Golfer Of The Sand Trap(OFOAPGOTST)

[Silent]

Professional golfers never operate solo, but have a whole team working with them. I constantly have six or seven people organising and doing things for me, helping me with training and taking me further. Only then can I fully concentrate on my game. If I had to arrange all the tickets myself, I’d be busy all day.

Private secretaries are expensive

My management team handles a lot of stuff. I’m away from home about 30 weeks of the year and I fly twice a week, so I need someone who can book flights and hotels, register for tournaments, stay in touch with sponsors, and organise special activities. My dad handles all these things in the Netherlands and also updates my site and takes care of my mail. When I’m abroad, things are handled by International Sports Management (ISM), who employ about twenty guys, a couple of whom are always present at a tournament so that they can take care of all your needs. They bring me an umbrella if it rains, organise new laces if one breaks, and rebook my flight if I get knocked out of a tournament early. Yes, a private secretary is pretty expensive, and I pay them myself, because they get a percentage of my prize money.

Swing coach for longer shots

I also have a swing coach who helps me with my longer shots, and a putting coach and a short-game coach, who is specialised in shots that are within 50 metres of the green. My mental coach ensures that I’m in the right state of mind, but the person I work with most is my caddy. He joins me on the course, carries my bag and hands me the right clubs. But he also sets my training schedule, keeps a record of statistics and serves as an intermediary between myself and the other team members. Where are things going wrong? Am I hitting the ball too high, too low or too short? We work together very intensively, which is why things have to click between us.

Sometimes the magic stops

A couple of months ago, I parted ways with my old caddy, whom I’d worked with for five years. What can I say: sometimes the magic stops or you lose the chemistry and you need to move on. He was a great guy, but I realised that he couldn’t take me to new heights. My new caddy is Dann Quinn, who’s a very motivated guy. He played professional ice hockey and he’s a very good golfer, playing off a 0 handicap, but he just wasn’t good enough to turn pro. And so he became a caddy, which allows him to rub shoulders with the professionals.

Difficult decisions

Of course it hurts when I have to end a long-term partnership, but you need to take difficult decisions as a top-class sportsman. It’s all about my game. I have also been forced to take decisions that my father didn’t like. He has handled my management from the start. He enjoys doing so and he is good at his job. But he also enjoyed accompanying me to every tournament and sticking as close to me as possible, especially in the beginning when everything was still new and interesting. But that annoyed me at times. “Dad, please leave me along for a moment,” I’d say. “I don’t want to see you in the coming weeks.” He was hurt initially, but when I was ranked second at one tournament and fifth at the next, he said: “Joost, you made the right decision.” That’s what being a professional is all about. If I think things work better without him being around, then that’s what I need to do. And that goes for the whole team. Conversely, I also expect them to tell me if I’m doing something wrong; whether I need to slow down or pick up the pace. I want them to be open and honest.

Generating positive thoughts

My main point of attention is developing routine, ensuring that I play every stroke right. I’ve developed a whole ritual for this so that it doesn’t matter whether I’m hitting the first or the last ball, I always play the shot like a should, if I follow the ritual. I do this by generating the same positive thoughts every time, by focusing and not allowing myself to get distracted, by thinking about the flag and not about the water hazard on the way, by keeping my eye on my final objective. This is something my mental coach helps me do.

From KLM Open Blog Joost Luiten

[Gunther]

Kinda comes off as a selfish, spoiled little douche but I'll cut him some slack for 2 reasons: 1. The language difference. Probably a lot lost in translation in terms of softening his words. 2. Guess you have to be somewhat selfish to excel in sport. Very interesting stuff, thanks @silent.

[Silent]

That's not at all what I understand from his words, so I guess it might be indeed a lost in translation / finding the right words issue. For me, it's a nice look inside a golfer's life and the fact there is a whole team involved. That his management team is getting a % of his wins instead of a fixed fee is quite surprising for me. For a low playing player I can understand that, but for a top 50 player that seems (or can get) pretty expensive then.

[Silent]

Translated from Joost Luiten's website:

Mwah, unfortunately Joost will not participate in the Ryder Cup, 26-28 September. He started the year amazingly well and we were all sure Joost Luiten would be the first Dutch contender in the Ryder Cup ever, but he shoudln't give the victory at the Lyoness Open away and also his performances in the US en British Open were not good enough. So then you know, Paul McGinley had no other choice than to inform Joost he won't be a part of the team this time.

Well, offcourse that is a disappointment, but right now the focus is on some new goals. One of them offcourse defending his title in the KLM Open, played from 11 - 14 September at De Kennemer G&CC.;

For you as loyal visitor of this website it's nice to know that Joost next monday, before a 6 holes match against Jiménez, will give a press conference at high level. This press conference will take place hight in the sky inside a KLM airplane. Then in the afternoon, around 15:30, the match against Miguel Angel Jiménez en in the eveing at 22:30 Joost will be on television at RTL 4 in Late Night, the show from Humberto Tan.

Joost sees the KLM Open as the fifth Major of the year, and absolutely loves to see all the supporters on the course. This "home game" will always be something special and he hopes a lot of you will be there!

See you at De Kennemer.

[Silent]

From his website:

'Thursday: On this course it's really important to keep patient and I managed to do that. After 8 pars in a row I made on 18, my 9th hole of the day, my first birdie. Unfort. at the next a bad drive and bogey: back to level par. But I hitted the balls pretty good, so I knew I would get my chances at birdie.

On my 12th, the par 3 hole 3, I got the birdie and 15, 16 and 17 I scored -4. Obviously this is the start I wanted to have.

-5 for the day and tomorrow we'll continue'

[Silent]

'Friday: From the tee it all was okay, but the irons were not sharp enough. Much to often I left myself with putts for birdie which were way to long, and the bogeys I made came out of nowhere. But luckily I'm not to far behind from the leaders, so tomorrow we will see if I can get any closer.' From his website. Obviously he's not in a good mood nd not happy at all. Could also see it on he course, seemed quite irritating. Not smart, hope he will have his a-game in the weekend. He needs it!