Europe’s greatest gather for Final Series
Holland’s golden boy, Joost Luiten headed to Sun City for the Nedbank Golf Challenge hosted by Gary Player (10-13 November) rated 64th in the world rankings. With only 72 players in the elite field and a … wait for it … 7 million dollar prize fund up for grabs, the European Tour’s lucrative Final Series is the stage for an exciting finale to the season. Indeed, a good performance in one of these three events can turn a mediocre year into a career best.
Joost has won one tournament this year – the KLM Open in September. But his game has felt worthy of more than this solitary victory. It’s been a busy season for the 30-year old from Bleiswijk near Rotterdam, with many ups and downs. One memorable, yet frustrating, highlight was representing Holland in the Olympic Games in Rio. One big disappointment was not quite making it into the Ryder Cup team, again, after getting off to a strong start in January. He produced six top-10 finishes in his first nine tournaments.
Not that Joost should be complaining. He has travelled the world playing in 26 tournaments on the European Tour, so far this season. A journey that has earned him nearly one and a half million euros in prizemoney – nearly double the amount he earned in Europe in 2015.
Boosting Joost’s world golf ranking
Playing in the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa, Joost was level par after 36 holes, but a costly double-bogey in round three at the 211-yard, par three 16th, saw him drop back to 2-over par for the tournament. On Sunday, deja-vu. Once again Joost opened with two birdies at the Gary Player Country Club. Another birdie followed at the par-three 10th. Joost was finding his form, it seemed, until his card suffered another double-bogey blemish at the lengthy 596-yard, par five 9th. Yet Joost stayed patient and showed his Dutch grit with back-to-back birdies at 15 and 16 to close with a 69 – his best round of the week.
While Sweden’s Alex Noren ran away with the victory – he was six shots ahead of the field on 14-under par – Joost’s score of one-under par (74-70-74-69) was good enough for a share of 14th spot with England’s Tommy Fleetwood. Joost is now ranked 16th in the Race to Dubai. More importantly for the Dutchman, it moves him up to 60th place in the Official World Golf Ranking. This is the lowest the Tour players are aiming to finish at the end of the season in order to get automatic invitations into the bigger tournaments on the world stage. Better still, in the top fifty to ensure participation in all four Majors.
Next stop on Joost’s schedule is the final show-stopper on the European Tour – DP World Championship in Dubai (17-20 November).
“Proost Joost!”
Wendy Hoad
Nice to know …
Alex Noren picked up a winner’s prize cheque of €1,048,522 in the Nedbank Golf Challenge!
Twenty-one year old Korean Jeunghun Wang came second in Sun City on 8-under par. 2nd prize: €699,012.
Tied 14th: Joost Luiten and Tommy Fleetwood each collected a cheque for Є91,042.
Taking the good with the bad: As there is no halfway cut in the three Final Series events, even the last man in the field collects a cheque. In Sun City, that was Lee Slattery. After a disastrous week, the Englishman still earned himself €11,324 for 70th place. Only two players went home empty-handed – one retired injured, the other was disqualified.
PICTURED: Joost Luiten in action during his second KLM Open victory. © Photography by Golfing Inspirations