Golfers losing balls is a fairly common occurrence, but Dutch player Joost Luiten took misplacing equipment to another level when he lost three of his clubs in a tree during the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai Sunday.
Days after Rory McIlroy’s tee shot landed in a spectator’s lap, Luiten, frustrated after making a bogey, threw his driver at a tree where it got stuck. He threw another club to try to get the driver, but the thick branches and leaves of the tree caught him too.
As a tournament official climbed the tree and threw sticks at the well-hosted clubs in vain, Luiten continued its own rescue efforts throwing a third club at the tree. A few pitches later, he had lost a third club.
“I tried to get it out by throwing other clubs at it and (two) other clubs got stuck in the tree, so I couldn’t get them out,” said Luiten, who won six titles on the European circuit.
Luiten tried to jump and hit the tree with a standard bearer sign before finally giving up. He played the rest of the hole with 11 clubs before a volunteer rescued the lodged clubs. The Dutchman finished the championship three points over par, placing third from bottom. Nicolai Højgaard won the tournament.
“That pretty much sums up my week,” Luiten added.
