Triple Dutch mistreatment of 'Olympians'
Netherlands denying to let 3 qualified golfers compete at Paris Games is short-sighted
Joost Luiten was top Dutch finisher (T15) in last week’s KLM Open in Amsterdam (Octavio Passos/Getty Images)
Any time a new initiative in golf is announced, a common mantra emerges — grow the game.
That was certainly true of the Olympics, as all the tours and associations worldwide got together and pushed to bring golf back into the Olympic Games program after more than a century’s absence. Golf in the Olympics, we were told, would draw more money for national programs and expose the game to the masses and grow the game in underrepresented nations.
When golf finally became an Olympic sport again in 2016 at the Rio Olympics in Brazil, the golf world applauded. But clearly, the Dutch didn’t get the memo.
The Netherlands are now committing a grievous mistake against “growing the game” by refusing to let three qualified golf Olympians — Joost Luiten and Darius Van Driel on the men’s side and Dewi Weber on the women’s side — compete in the 2024 Games in Paris in August.
This first came to my attention in a story written by Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press and since then I have talked via phone with Van Driel from Italy, where he is playing in the this week’s Italian Open, about the plight he and his Dutch peers face.
Van Driel, currently No. 242 in the Official World Golf Ranking, jumped into consideration for one of the 60 spots in the Olympics when he won the Magical Kenya Open on the DP World Tour in February, moving him from No. 366 in the world to 216th. Countryman Luiten currently ranks No. 148, though he has ranked as high as 28th.
Being the second-best men’s golfer in the Netherlands, however, seemingly isn’t worth much to the Netherlands Olympic Committee, whose position is if they don’t “think” an athlete can finish in the top eight or have a realistic shot at winning a medal in any competition then they are not worth spending money on as members of the Dutch Olympics team.
The top eight finishers in the Olympics get certificates, which is why they have such a short-sighted rule. It also shows a clear lack of understanding about golf, where any player in a 60-man field is capable of having a good week and contending on course that might suit them.
The Dutch players who were excluded — women’s golfer Anne van Dam (No. 108 in the Rolex Women’s World Ranking) is being allowed to compete — were willing to pay their own way in Paris. But even that was not good enough for the Dutch, who would rather see their country’s best golfers stay home than compete on the world stage in the Olympics.
“A bit of a shocker,” Van Driel called the decision by the Netherlands Olympic Committee.
Shocker is an understatement, as Luiten criticized the Dutch Golf Federation in a story written in the Dutch publication De Telegraaf. “Luiten, who participated in the Tokyo Games in 2021, unsuccessfully appealed to the sports association this month for the trio to be broadcast. He emphasized that golf is an unpredictable sport, in which a player outside the top 100 of the world rankings can easily win a medal.”
Luiten’s point was the Dutch Golf Federation agreed to the outrageous rules of the Netherlands Olympic Committee, when they should have stood up and said no.
“It’s just mindblowing that they say I can not finish top 8 at the @olympics. @nocnsf have absolutely no clue about golf,” Luiten wrote on Instagram.
The best Dutch golfer of all time questions the knowledge of the NOC when it comes to golf, and he has a point. The world rankings are not determining if a player will win or lose, so to suggest that any player’s position in the rankings is too low for success is ludicrous.
Both Rory Sabbatini and C.T. Pan won medals in Tokyo in 2021 coming from outside the top 100. Sabbatini, who ranked No. 161 in the world, won a silver medal shooting a 61 in the final round for Slovakia. Pan won a bronze medal in seven-man playoff was the 181st in the world when he qualified for his team from Taiwan.
Then No. 161 Rory Sabbatini (right) and No. 181 C.T. Pan (left) took silver and bronze medals behind current world No. 2 and reigning PGA champion Xander Schauffele in 2021 Tokyo Olympics. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Weber expressed her hurt and dissatisfaction to Golf Digest at not being allowed to compete with Dam as a qualified Olympian.
“Our own country is saying we don’t think you’re worthy of being an Olympian, and you’re not worthy of representing the Netherlands,” said Weber, No. 302 in the Rolex Rankings. “And that, honestly, that hurts. We even asked them, ‘Hey, is this about money? Like, we will pay for it ourselves. Our Federation will pay for it.’
“And they said no, we just don’t think you’re worth it going to the Olympics. That is such a hurtful and sad message to send to elite athletes like us who have proven, according to the IOC and IGF standards, that we are worthy of doing that and we want nothing more than to represent our country and do all the things that the Olympics are about.”
Obviously, the Netherlands Olympics Committee has completely lost the understanding of not only what the Games are about, but how golf is so completely different than many other sports in that a lower-ranked player can succeed against higher-rated peers in Olympic competition.
The International Golf Federation put standards in place to allow for maximum participation from all over the world. Three countries — the Netherlands, New Zealand and Sweden — added an additional layer to make qualifying more onerous and restricting access for its athletes.
“It’s so stupid, if every country would uphold our national demands, we would have 15 guys in the Olympics,” Van Driel told bunkered.co.uk. “No one would have qualified.”
On Thursday, New Zealand certified its two women golfers, Lydia Ko and Momoka Kobori. It was a major victory for Kobori, No. 293 in the Rolex Rankings, since the New Zealand Olympic Committee was considering not allowing her to play for the same reason the three Dutch players were excluded.
Thankfully, the Kiwis have more common sense than the Dutch. They realize you can’t grow the game by denying access.
Holiday respite
With Fourth of July week vacations and a relatively quiet golf schedule next week, The Daily Drive will take a brief break after Monday’s (free!) edition on July 1. We’ll be back up and running regularly July 8 as the season rolls into a fortnight in Scotland including the next major at Royal Troon. Thanks for reading.