The British Masters

It’s a gorgeous, crisp and sunny Autumn day here in Holland. The weather pundits are predicting a ten for today. Perfect weather for golf. Let’s hope Buckinghamshire in England is bathing in Autumn sunshine too. With a little bit of extra wind thrown in to make it even more interesting at Woburn Golf Club and help sort out the men from the boys. Will it be a Sunday morning “stroll in the park” for our “golden boy” Joost Luiten in the British Masters? It’s going to be tough. He has left himself a lot of work to do in the final round.

 

Solid but lacking lustre

 

“Our Joost” has been playing some solid golf in the British Masters. It just lacks lustre. That sparkle that gets you on a roll holing putts for birdies and eagles. That sparkle that gets the engraver’s hand twitching in anticipation of adding your name onto the silver trophy.

 

He opened with a promising 3-under par, 68 (four birdies and a bogey) on the Marquess’ course at Woburn to finish in a tie for 18th place. The Rotterdammer was four shots off the lead set by the youngest player in the field, 21-year old Matthew Fitzpatrick from England.

 

On Friday, Holland’s sole player on the European Tour this season needed one shot more to complete his round. Fortunately, he wasn’t the only one. His 69 actually moved him up the leaderboard to a share of 13th position with nine other players on 5-under par. At the end of the day, rookie golfer Fitzpatrick had to share his lead with Soren Kjeldsen (Denmark) on 9-under.

 

In round three, Joost reached the turn in 1-under par. Alas, he then made only one more birdie on the back nine which did little to compensate for further dropped shots at the 11th and 18th holes. Result? Moving day headed distinctly in the wrong direction. Although he remained at 5-under par, he slumped 12 places on the scoreboard down to 25th spot.

 

In order to secure a top-ten finish, Joost will have to wave the magic putter today. He is seven shots adrift of joint leaders Matthew Fitzpatrick and Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Thailand) on 12-under.

 

Football crazy

 

With a bit of luck, he will have woken up inspired this morning after seeing the Dutch national football team beat Kasakhstan by 2-1 in an all-important qualifying match for the 2016 European Championships.   More than 3.1 million Dutch fans were glued to the box in Holland last night in the vague hope of “Oranje” surviving. Football enthusiast Joost and his golf team were probably chilling out in front of a large television screen somewhere in Woburn. Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy chose not to miss the action. The former world number one golfer was spotted in a football stadium in Ireland last night supporting his country and celebrating their victory. Yes, it´s good to relax and clear the head of golf at times.

 

Today, however, it´s back to business on the fairways. “Proost Joost!”

 

Wendy Hoad