Happy Birthday: “Proost Joost”!

Holland’s glory warms-up in Dubai for world top-30

Holland’s star golfer, Joost Luiten, celebrates his 31st birthday today (7 January). The player from Rotterdam is sunning himself in Dubai this week, warming-up his game in preparation for his first tournament of the year in the United Arab Emirates later this month. An ideal moment for us to pause for a moment and reflect upon his 2016 season on the European Tour – ten years after he turned professional.

Expectations were sky-high for golfers such as Joost last year. The Olympic Games and the Ryder Cup together in one season, just seven weeks apart, created a lot of added pressure. Although Joost didn’t quite play his way into the European Ryder Cup team nor did he get a wild card pick from Captain Darren Clarke, he did represent Holland in the Rio Olympics. It wasn’t to be the week of glory in Brazil that he had hoped for but, just four weeks later, he was back home striding down the final fairway at The Dutch about to be crowned the Dutch Open Champion for the second time. A stunning week of golf saw the player from Rotterdam shoot a course record-equalling 63 on the final day to get to 19-under par and win his fifth European Tour title.

Playing in 27 tournaments, Joost’s topsy-turvy 2016 season actually earned him a handsome 1,596,853 euros in prizemoney. It was only in 2014 that he enjoyed a richer season which included his biggest pay-cheque to date: 375,789 euros for victory in the ISPS Handa Wales Open.

Holland’s got golf talent thanks to Uncle Wim

Joost was born on 7 January 1986 as the youngest of four sons in a family of market garden growers in Bleiswijk, near Rotterdam. His parents, Nico and Nel, are two of his greatest fans. Nico is also a keen golfer now, but it was Uncle Wim who got Joost started playing golf when he was nine years old. He took him to a driving range in Rotterdam, now known as the Seve Golf Centre, where he got hooked. When he is not jetting around the world playing in golf tournaments, Joost can be found working on his game with swing coach, Phil Allen in his own swing studio at the Seve GC.

Without the extra hype of the Olympics and The Ryder Cup, Joost can simply focus this season on the regular tournaments. His priority now is to get himself back into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking to ensure an automatic invitation to the four Major Championships. He currently lies 58th, 30 places below his best-ever world ranking in 2014.

A trophy engraver’s nightmare

An interesting thought … Should Joost ever be in the running to win The Open, it would be interesting to see the face of the engraver poised with his eyeglass over the Claret Jug as the pride of Holland holes out for victory. Joost’s full name would look mighty impressive on the trophy: Willibrordus Adrianus Maria Luiten, but it could give the engraver a headache getting the trophy ready in time for the prize-giving!

Fortunately Joost still has time on his side. Looking at the European Tour rankings, Sweden’s Henrik Stenson had another scintillating season last year, winning the Race to Dubai for the second time in his career at the still ripening age of 40.

World top-30 goal for New Year

The Dutchman’s goal for 2017 is to finish in the top-30 of the world. Like all the top players, he has been analysing his results and statistics over the last twelve months. The solution is simple: “I need to work on my short irons to ensure that I get closer to the pin from 100 meters and so make more birdies per round”.

But first there are 31 candles burning brightly on his birthday cake which need to be blown out …

Happy Birthday Joost and “Proost”!

Here’s wishing you another great season ahead!

Wendy Hoad

PICTURED: Joost Luiten focusses on his imminent victory in the KLM Open at The Dutch GC. A few minutes later he was crowned Dutch Open Champion for the second time.