Dutch golfer Joost Luiten is back in the mix to play in the Olympics. He just might not have a tee time in Paris.
In the latest twist of a strange saga, the International Golf Federation on Saturday put Luiten onto what amounts to the alternate list, all while holding out hope the International Olympic Committee will allow one extra player in the 60-man field.
The IOC already has denied that request.
The Dutch Olympic Committee did not submit the names of Luiten or Darius Van Driel, along with Ladies European Tour player Dewi Weber, for confirmation.
Their spots in the 60-player fields already were filled by the time Luiten won a Dutch court order that he be added to the Aug. 1-4 men’s competition at Le Golf National outside Paris. The Dutch court, however, is not recognized by the IOC.
Luiten would not automatically get into the Paris Games if any player withdrew. It would have to be a situation where the next available player were ranked below him.
The IGF said in a statement it “recognizes an error was made” by the Dutch Olympic Committee with its qualification criteria and through the process of confirming which athletes would be competing in the Paris Games.
For the second straight Olympics, Dutch officials have said they were not sending golfers if they didn’t think they could finish among the top eight. If their Olympic ranking — based on the Official World Golf Ranking — was deemed to low, they would not go.
Luiten was eligible but kept out of the Tokyo Games because he was not among the top 40 of the Olympic ranking or the top 100 in the world. He competed in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
Luiten was No. 40 in the Olympic ranking this year.
At issue is the Dutch changing criteria at the end of 2023 in which men could go if they were among the top 27. Otherwise, they had to finish in the top eight at a tournament that had five of the top 50 players in the world, or 10 of the top 100. The European tour rarely gets fields that strong outside of its biggest events.
Luiten would have qualified under the previous criteria. That was brought to the attention of the Netherlands Olympic Committee-Netherlands Sport Federation. The IGF said it chose not to correct the error and withdrew all three golfers.
The NOC-NSF submitted Luiten’s name based on the court ruling on July 2, but that was four days after Luiten already had been replaced.
Luiten might have had a better chance had he appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which the IOC recognizes. Barring the IOC changing its mind about a 61-man field, the best hope for the 38-year-old Luiten is for the right player to withdraw.
Luiten missed the cut at the Scottish Open and was headed to Royal Troon in Scotland for the Open Championship next week. He is a six-time winner on the European Tour.