Joost Luiten wins court case to play golf for Netherlands at Olympics | Golf Central | Golf Channel

Joost Luiten sits down with Golf Central to detail how he sued the Netherlands after not being named to compete at the Olympics despite ranking high enough to qualify. #GolfChannel #GolfCentral
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Joost Luiten wins court case to play golf for Netherlands at Olympics | Golf Central | Golf Channel
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golf Central on YouTube is brought to you by the new Chrome tour golf ball from Callaway and now we are pleased to welcome in Yos Lon long overdue congratulations for qualifying for the Olympics uh the Olympic teams were actually finalized the day after the US Open so let’s start here when and how did you find out that the Dutch Olympic Committee wasn’t going to allow you to compete I got a phone call on the 27 the Monday and basically they said Yos you’re not going we’re not sending you we don’t think you’re good enough and that was about it that was the only statement they gave and uh yeah I was quite disappointed well disappointed I would imagine had to have been in uh an understatement um were you insulted oh not not insulted but I it it just didn’t feel like everything went down in a Fair Way um what you can do in Holland if you don’t meet the qualification criteria you can apply for wild card basically and then you got to show your case why you think you’re good enough to compete in the Olympics and the only question they need to answer then is are you good enough to finish in the top eight of the Olympics and I said I am good enough I showed them all the evidence and the stats and everything and they still came back with the only answer no we don’t think you’re good enough and I thought well that’s a bit strange uh you know but if people don’t understand golf you might think I’m not good enough to finish in the top eight but I thought I’ll just want to have an independent somebody looking at my case and that was the judge so I thought well let’s take him to court all right so let’s dig into some of the details here first of all what court did you go to ultimately to argue your case so I mean it’s it’s just the Dutch Court just a normal regular Court um but what we did because it was a time sensitive thing you have to apply for what we call it here is a turbo Speedy uh process so we applied our case at the court on Tuesday Morning the 2nd 8 o’clock and at 1 o’clock in the afternoon I was in front of a judge because before five o’clock that day in the afternoon we needed a a verdict basically to still be able to enter myself for the Olympics so I’m curious what kind of arguments did you and your lawyers make in court yesterday to win the case oh we we had a whole list of arguments but the biggest thing and that’s where we won on is in December 23 the Dutch Olympic uh committee decided to change the qualification criterias for the golfers um so if they would have had those criterias from the beginning when the when the qualification started I would have qualified in two separate events I would have been qualified straight away for the Olympics and those two events but because they started it so late um I I I I didn’t feel like I had had a fair chance and I felt like I met their criterias but that they came up with them so late that wasn’t my problem I showed them I could meet those criterias even though it was a little bit earlier than when they started them that’s I think that was the biggest thing that um that’s why I won yeah this is so strange you know the history of this game has plenty of examples of players being successful when others thought they might not uh be able to you know the primary example that comes to mind is Ben Curtis at the 2003 open at that point he was ranked 396th in the world do you think that your country Olympic Committee just doesn’t understand golf because it’s not a traditional Dutch sport that’s the biggest biggest issue what happened here um you got people making rules for a sport that’s got a completely different Dynamic than basically any other sport in the world and if you if if you let people that don’t understand the sport if you let them make the criterias then then it’s not going to be the right criterias and I’ve been fighting them for the last 10 years since we’ve been an Olympic sport they never wanted to listen and um 14 we of the 14th of of June this this month I went down to them and I showed them all the stats of golf like the examples that you said with Ben Curtis and I showed him with Rory satini winning a silver medal being outside the top 150 in the world I showed them that an amateur golfer won a PGA Tour event that that only can happen in golf that doesn’t happen in swimming or running or all the traditional Sports and and that’s what I presented to the judge as well to show them that golf’s got a completely different Dynamic and that the people that make the rules on my sports got no clue about my Sport and and that that needs to change in the future so I was in the courtroom for myself on the short term to get myself into the Olympics but also to make a point for the future of golf in Holland or else we would be fighting them for another four years for the next Olympics so I was in the courtroom for for for those two reasons I’m curious what’s the reaction been like back home what do the Dutch people seem to think about this has it been a big deal it’s been crazy I mean I’ve been I’ve been calling non-stop the last 24 hours I had so many messages of of you know everybody that finally says finally somebody that takes down those people that think that are Untouchable and that have no clue about sports even though they work for the biggest sport organization in in my country I even got messages from from Swedish athletes that say oh we’ve been fighting our uh Federation for years and and can you help us I mean it’s just it’s not only Holland but it’s worldwide I’ve had calls from Argentina I mean it’s just crazy the things that come come by now and and that shows you that there’s still a lot of work to be done and that they need to communicate more with the athletes because because of at the end of the day the athletes make the Olympics not those federations and I think that’s why they make uh make a wrong you know impression that they I mean they decide but they don’t make the Olympics it’s the athletes that make the Olympics and that’s where the power needs to go to let’s look ahead for a moment to Paris um you’re going to be part of a delegation that is led by these people that you’ve just sued and W against what do you think that’s going to be like you think it’ll be uncomfortable I mean to be honest and I I I was I was very surprised but I I the basically director the director that was in the courtroom that I was fighting against he he gave me a phone call about an hour after the verdict and he said Yos congratulations well done and let’s make it a great Olympics and I’m coming to watch you on the on the final day of of of uh of the golf tournament and I thought that’s you know that class and I said the same let listen let’s make it a great Olympics I’m not here you know I don’t want to do this but I felt like I needed to do this and luckily I I had good enough points to do it and to win it but let’s you know let’s focus on sport because at the end of the day that’s that’s what I’m all about I want to compete I wanna I want to make results I want to win medals I want to win golf tournaments I don’t want to sue people you know that’s that’s not my thing and and I felt like I had to do it but it’s not what I I I want to do and uh luckily they feel the same and the context since then has been pretty good and and you know we need to make the results together and uh hopefully this opened their eyes and obviously it did or else he wouldn’t be calling me I wonder if you have allowed yourself finally to imagine you know what it’s going to be like marching in that opening ceremony being part of a delegation that represents your country people talk about it as one of the greatest Honors that an athlete could ever have it is I mean and and and and that’s why I made such a big deal out of this because it’s not about about a golf tournament it’s it’s about representing your country we don’t get to do that that often in golf because it’s such an individual Sport and to be able to play in front of people that don’t understand my sport that well because the Olympics is is a lot bigger than just golf um and representing my country and and that’s what I want to do and that’s what I look forward to