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Most golfers have trouble relating to professionals who are able to navigate some of the toughest courses on the planet with ease, but even the most talented players occasionally fall victim to scenarios the average hack can sympathize with—like the one Joost Luiten found himself facing after losing his cool during a DP World Tour event.
The mental aspect of golf is arguably just as important as the physical prowess required to play the sport at its highest levels, and most pros are able to keep their cool on the course even when faced with some particularly infuriating adversity. However, Joost Luiten was a very notable exception to that rule when the DP World Tour Championship was held in Dubai over the weekend.
The Dutch golfer found himself facing an uphill battle after recording a 77 in his opening round, and while he bounced back a bit with a 73 on Friday and a three-under 69 on Saturday, he was never close to being in contention for the title and was understandably frustrated with how he played over the course of the tournament.
Those frustrations boiled over when he botched his tee shot on the ninth hole at Jumeirah Golf Estates during his final round on Sunday, and he wasted no time flinging his driver in the direction of the tree it ultimately got stuck in.
From there, we were treated to a comedy of errors that unfolded as Luiten tried to recover it only to lose two more clubs that were claimed by the tree before he admitted defeat and continued the rest of his hole.
Taking tree trouble to the next level 🌳@joostluiten threw his driver into a tree and then loses two more clubs trying to retrieve it! #DPWTC | #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/uOqUmPyxZm
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) November 19, 2023
Luiten wasn’t without the clubs for long, as someone managed to retrieve all of them by the time he made it to the 10th hole.
When everything was said and done, he shot a 73 on Sunday and finished in 48th place out of 50 competitors—a grand total of 24 shots behind eventual winner Nicolai Højgaard.