(Reuters) – Dutch golfer Joost Luiten said on Tuesday he won a court case that will get him into the Paris Olympics after the Netherlands Olympic Committee and Netherlands Sports Federation (NOCNSF) opted not to send him despite being eligible.
Luiten, who did not say where the court case took place, had qualified for Paris but his national committee decided not to enter him into the golf competition, believing his world ranking, which was 147th at the time, was too low to give him a realistic chance in a 60-player field.
“The Olympic rings are colored again,” Luiten wrote in an Instagram post announcing the court’s decision while adding that the NOCNSF had to enter him into the men’s golf competition.
Darius Van Driel and Dewi Weber of the Netherlands had also qualified for the Olympic men’s and women’s golf competitions, respectively, but were denied a chance to play.
It was not clear if the court ruling shared by Luiten also impacted Van Driel and Weber.
The International Golf Federation uses the Official World Golf Ranking to create the Olympic Golf Rankings as a method of determining eligibility.
The top 15 world-ranked players are eligible for the Olympics, with a limit of four players from a given country.
Beyond the top 15, players are eligible based on the world rankings, with a maximum of two players from each country that does not already have two or more players among the top 15.
Luiten is 40th in the Olympic rankings.
At the time of the NOCNSF’s decision, Van Driel was ranked 237th in the world ranking and 40th in the Olympic ranking.
Weber was 302nd in the women’s world ranking and 58th in the Olympic ranking while Dutchwoman Anne Van Dam, No. 108 and No. 34, was permitted to compete.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Toby Davis)
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