Joost Luiten has confirmed via social media that he will be able to feature at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games after the Netherlands Olympic Committee's decision to prevent him from competing was overturned by a court on Tuesday.
The 60-player fields in both the men's and women's golf events were confirmed towards the end of last month, with DP World Tour winners Luiten and Darius van Driel having qualified alongside their fellow Dutch nationals Anne van Dam and Dewi Weber.
Van Dam is a five-time champion on the Ladies European Tour who is ranked 113th in the world and also won the Solheim Cup in 2019 while Weber - who features on the Epson Tour, one tier below the LPGA - is currently 306th but has finished as a runner-up this term and collected four top-10s.
Meanwhile, van Driel recently claimed his first victory on the DP World Tour at the Magical Kenya Open, and Luiten - a six-time European Tour victor - finished as the top Dutch player at the KLM Open in June.
But despite all four golfers qualifying for the tournament at Le Golf National through their own right, the Netherlands Golf Federation stated the NOC was only allowing seven-time pro winner van Dam to compete as it believed the other three had “no reasonable chance of a top-eight ranking during the Olympic Games.”
Joost Luiten
Luiten - who sits 66th in the DP World Tour's Race to Dubai standings and 151st in the OWGR - called the verdict "mindblowing" and "sad" in a previous statement on social media and accused the NOC of having "absolutely no clue about golf."
He said: "It’s just mindblowing that they say I can not finish top 8 at the @olympics, @nocnsf have absolutely no clue about golf. Also they have changed the criteria’s in dec 2023, if they had those criteria’s from the start in June 2023 I would have qualified at 2 separate events. That’s even more painful to me!
"I just don’t get it! Typically Holland, they only understand the typical dutch sports, clearly not golf. So sad and painful."
On Tuesday morning [July 2], Luiten posted on Instagram to say that he was taking his battle against the NOC&NSF to court in order to receive "an independent judgement."
He wrote: "COURT DAY!!! I will be fighting the decision to not send me to the olympics by the NOC NSF in court TODAY! We will put our case in front of a judge and get an independent judgement! An independent look to my case that’s something I have been looking for and know I have not been getting from the NOC NSF! LET’s GOOO!!"
Hours later, the Dutch golfer shared an update to reveal he had been successful.
In his latest Instagram post, Luiten said: "I have WON the court case and the @NOCNSF have to enter me before 5pm today [Tuesday, July 2]!!! LET'S GO @olympics. Thanks @snijders.advocaten."
It is not currently known whether van Driel and Weber will be allowed to compete as well, with the DP World Tour player having also criticized the NOC on social media after the original ruling emerged.
Van Driel echoed Luiten's view on the governing body and claimed the trio were prevented from travelling to Paris "because of political reasons."
He said: "No Olympics for Joost Luiten, Dewi Weber and myself although we qualified. The @nocnsf doesn’t have a clue about golf and it a shame we’re suffering now.
"We’re not going because of political reasons. Mistakes were made by the @nederlandse.golf.federatie for agreeing with the absurd demands on the national qualifications. A sad day for Dutch golf. #shameonyou."
Meanwhile, Weber told Golf Digest: "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. And that, honestly, that hurts."
The NOC's original decision arrived three years after then-World No.161 Rory Sabbatini won silver for Slovakia and then-World No.181 C.T. Pan claimed bronze for Taiwan at the last Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
Golf Monthly has approached the NOC for comment.
The golf events at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games take place at Le Golf National between August 1-4 (men) and August 7-10 (women).
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