Player Profile - Joost Luiten

This week's player profile introduces fans to up and coming Dutch golfer JoostLuiten, winner of the 2011 Iskandar Johor Open.Luiten was born in 1986, in the town of Bleiswijk in the Netherlands, where he still resides today.

Growing up in scenic Holland, Luiten wasted no time in developing his skills as a golfer during his time at high school. In 2005, at the age of nineteen, he won the Spanish and German Amateur Opens. When the time came to choose his career, Luiten decided to pursue golf professionally and enrolled in the Challenge Tour's qualifying school.

Following an initial setback when he did not manage to obtain his Tour card, Luiten opted to make his debut on the EPD Tour. His prudent decision soon paid off, as the young golfer scored second place twice in his first four tournaments.

One significant challenge that Luiten had to weather during his time on the EPD Tour was not having a Challenge Tour card. This meant that he had to rely on invitations to Challenge Tour events in order to compete. Despite this setback, Luiten made the most of the invitations he received, coming tenth at the 2006 Tusker Kenya Open - a victory which scored him an invitation to other tournaments. As Luiten scored consistently better in the tournaments he played his invitations continued to increase in number.

2007 was Luiten's second season on the professional golf circuit, and saw the young golfer make his way to the top level of the sport. In May of that year he won the Allianz Golf Open de Toulouse, his first victory on the Challenge Tour. Following on this initial success, Luiten won the Vodafone Challenge the following month. These victories earned him a European Tour card and access to the top level of European golf.

On Sunday Luiten won for the first time on the European Tour, beating Sweden's Daniel Chopra to win the co-sanctioned Iskandar Johor Open.

Golfweather Editorial