Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
It is Joost nice to be competing
JOOST LUITEN overcame an 18-strong field including former world number ones Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer to triumph in the inaugural BMW Indoor Invitational.
Luiten’s six-under-par 66, where all players took part from their homes on a golf simulator depicting the Old Course at St Andrew’s, handed the Dutchman victory by two strokes in the one-round 18-hole event.
The world number 98 intends to split the €10,000 prize money between his own charity and a hospital in his native Rotterdam.
“It’s a good feeling to win the inaugural event,” Luiten said on the European Tour’s website. “We’ve been doing nothing for such a long time, so it is nice to get that feeling of competition going again.
“You try to stay fit and practise the way you can indoors, but it is different, so it is good to have some nerves and that feeling of actually competing and trying to beat everybody else.
“That’s the most fun for us and that is why we are golf professionals. We have been missing that feeling for a long time and it was good to get it back and to do well as well.”
Frenchman Damien Perrier finished second, while Westwood carded 72 and Kaymer was two shots back in the first of five tournaments using the latest simulator technology.
clubs could reopen in England from Wednesday under the plans set out by Boris Johnson to allow unlimited outdoor exercise.
Government officials said golf courses would be allowed to open as long as social distancing measures were enforced.