Dutchman Joost Luiten is celebrating a first European Tour success in capturing the rain-affected Iskandar Johor Open.
Luiten, 25 wearing two gloves to combat the searing humidity, posted a final round six-under par 65 to win by a stroke with a 15-under par tally in the event reduced to 54-holes on the Horizon Hills course.
Luiten, a former Dutch, Spanish and German amateur champion, becomes only the fourth Dutch golfer to win on the European Tour and the first since Robert Jan Derksen captured the 2005 Maderia Islands Open.
Joost Luiten with the Iskandar Johor Open. (www.golftourmiss.com)
“I don’t know what this means for the Order of Merit and stuff like that, but we’ll see tomorrow, and we’ll see what tournaments I’m going to play in and what the schedule is going to look like,” said Luiten.
“But obviously I’m really excited about playing in Dubai.
“I have been close a few times this year, and to finally win one and get close to the top 15 is unbelievable. And hopefully I can play well in Dubai and push along a little bit.”
Victory should place Luiten just outside the top-10 Ryder Cup automatic qualifiers once the points table is adjusted, and the flying Dutchman has set making the Medinah team as one of his goals.
“The first win is always really tough, and to get finally your first win in, that’s the first step so now the goal is to try to keep on winning, and to play in The Ryder Cup and get yourself into the Majors and into the top 50 in the World. But this is the first step,” he said.
And asked whether he will continued playing with two gloves, the curly-haired Luiten responded: “Well, because of the humidity I get sweaty hands, and when I don’t wear the other glove on my right, my right hand slips off,” he said.
“So with two gloves I get more grip, then the problem is solved and it really helped me this week.”
The Bleiswijk-born Luiten also becomes the 10th first-time winner of this year’s European Tour.
Sweden’s Daniel Chopra, who led going into the third and final round, had the chance to force a play-off but he missed his 15-foot eagle putt in a round of 70 for second place at 14-under par.
Padraig Harrington again fell short of his goal of contesting the season-ending Dubai World Championship.
Needing an eagle to force a play-off or a birdie for second, Harrington missed the green with his approach at the par five, 18th walking off with a par in defence of his Iskandar Johor Open title.
“It was disappointing not to birdie the last would have got me into the Race to Dubai and while I’ll take sharing third, the move on the Race to Dubai is near irrelevant,” he said.
“I know I will be thinking about them a lot before I go to sleep on the flight tonight to Dublin.”
Harrington, who arrived in Johor lying 76th on the Race to Dubai, will pick up a few places but not enough to break inside the top-60.
His next event will be a ‘Last Chance Saloon’ UBS Hong Kong Open.
And defending champion, Padraig Harrington also needed an eagle to force a play-off but ended with a disappointing par in a round of 69 to share third on 13-under par.
