Professional Golfer Throws Driver Into A Tree, Proceeds To Lose Two More Clubs Trying To Retrieve It

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Just glancing at the DP World Tour Championship leaderboard and seeing Joost Luiten's final round 73 to finish 48th in a 50-player field on Sunday, most would guess there would be no meaningful takeaway from the Dutchman's Sunday. Thanks to him losing his cool and an unfortunately placed tree he just so happened to deliver one of the greatest moments of the 2023 season.

Luiten began the week in Dubai with a slim chance of securing his PGA tour card with a Top 10 finish. After three bad rounds to begin the tournament, those chances were essentially nonexistent come Sunday, and he elected to let that frustration out on the ninth hole.

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Luiten missed the fairway by a wide margin with his tee shot on the Par 4. Instead of slamming his driver into the ground or simply breaking it over his knee, he decided to throw it, and throw it a pretty good distance.

His driver ended up landing in a tree, and the tree decided to keep it.

Luiten and his caddie made their way to the tree and after spotting his driver decided to throw one of his irons at the club to try and dislodge it. The tree elected to hang on to that club again. If at first you don't succeed, you simply must try again, and the same result unfolded again.

The bag kick after losing three clubs courtesy of a tree is the cherry on top of the moment.

After losing three clubs in the span of about five minutes, Luiten proceeded to make a bogey on the ninth hole to make the turn at three-over on the day.

While Luiten failed to get the driver down from the tree multiple times, a volunteer and his eight-month pregnant wife reportedly retrieved shortly after the debacle, and the clubs were safely returned to his bag on the 10th tee.

Nicolai Hojgaard ended up winning the tournament on Sunday at 21-under narrowly beating Luiten by 24 shots.

Follow Mark Harris on X @ItIsMarkHarris and email him at mark.harris@outkick.com

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and all other happenings in the world of golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.