Luiten’s court victory to get into Olympic golf competition not recognized by IOC

By DOUG FERGUSON The Associated Press

FILE - Joost Luiten of Netherlands plays his second shot on the first hole during the second round of the Dubai Invitational golf tournament, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. Luiten is being kept out of the Olympics by Dutch officials who feel his world ranking is too low.(AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Kamran Jebreili]

Joost Luiten won the battle in a Dutch court to play in the Olympics. That wasn’t enough for the International Olympic Committee, which on Tuesday denied a request to add him to the field for men’s golf at the Paris Games.

Antony Scanlan, executive director of the International Golf Federation, said Tuesday afternoon the Dutch court ruling only directed its Olympic committee to put Luiten in the Olympics.

“When they entered him, we already had moved forward with the process,” Scanlan said, meaning the IGF submitted the list of golfers with the two alternates for the Dutch players. “What I had to do then was write to the IOC and ask for an exemption on the 60-player limit and allow 61 players.”

He said the IOC, which is not under jurisdiction of Dutch courts, did not feel compelled to add another player to the field.

Luiten directed his anger at the IOC in an Instagram post late Tuesday evening, saying he could not take the Olympics seriously anymore.

“They don’t take the Dutch law as (their) jurisdiction and my spot in The Olympics had already been given away to somebody else because the @NOCNSF withdrew me early! Now they don’t want to give me my spot back!!!” Luiten wrote.

“I don’t see any fair play or respect from the IOC, so how can they say The Olympic games are built on those fundamentals?”

The Dutch Olympic Committee decided not to send Luiten and Darius Van Driel, and Dewi Weber for the women’s competition, to the Paris Games because they felt their world rankings were too low for them to have a reasonable chance against 60-player fields.

The IGF lobbied on behalf of the Dutch, pointing out occasions when players ranked outside the top 100 in the world have won tournaments, even majors. Also noteworthy was Rory Sabbatini of Slovakia (silver) and C.T. Pan of Taiwan (bronze) winning medals in Japan while ranked well outside the top 100.

Luiten, also kept from playing at the Tokyo Olympics for the same reasoning, appealed last week to a Dutch court which ordered Dutch Olympic officials to include him. The ruling did not effect Van Driel and Weber.

By then, the IGF had already submitted its list of 60 men that included the two alternates behind Luiten and Van Driel — Joel Girrbach of Switzerland and Tapio Pulkkanen of Finland.

“The IGF was not a party to the legal action brought forth by Luiten in the Netherlands,” the IGF said in a statement Tuesday. “Nevertheless, in an effort to support Luiten, the IGF sought an exception from the IOC to increase the field size of the men’s Olympic golf competition from 60 to 61 competitors to include Luiten, however the request was denied by the IOC today.”

The IGF said it has informed Luiten of the IOC’s decision and that the Dutch player has not said if he intends to challenge it further.

One option might be to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which the IOC recognizes.

The men’s competition starts Aug. 1 at Le Golf National.

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