Virginia Water, Surrey … In-form Joost Luiten cut a swath through the field shooting a storming seven under par 65 that included nine birdies and remarkably 11 one-putts to muscle his way to a share of the lead on the opening day of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
Luiten joined big-hitting Aussie Scott Hend and 2009 PGA Champion Y E Yang of South Korea in front of the field in ideal scoring conditions at Tour HQ.
Masters champion Danny Willett returned to home soil and quickly stamped his presence to be one shot behind the leading trio in signing for a 66.
Flying Dutchman Luiten arrived at Wentworth as one of the best inform European Tour players this year including eight top-15 finishes from 11 starts and highlighted by back-to-back second place results in the Spanish Open and the Shenzhen International in China.
Dutchman Joost Luiten stands proud after shooting a 65 to share the lead on day one of the BMW PGA (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
And naturally Luiten was delighted to be sharing the lead in the Euro 5m event.
“It’s a good opening score,” said Luiten and currently flying high in 8th place on the Race to Dubai money list.
“I started with a bogey on the first, and to get it back to 7-under, that means you’ve hit a lot of good shots, and I’m very happy with that.
“The key today to my low scoring was hitting the greens, fairways and greens, staying out of the traps. They are very deep and they will cost you a shot. So I just hit a lot of greens and I made some nice putts, and 65.”
Luiten is contesting a seventh straight BMW PGA since making his Wentworth debut in 2011.
But after missing the cut for three years running from 2011 to 2013 the affable Bleiswijk-born golfer has in recent years shown a fondness for the West Course finishing T12th in 2014 and a place higher a year ago.
Phil Allen and helping Luiten muscle his way to a superb seven under par 65 on the opening day of the BMW PGA Championship (Photo – Phil Allen).
However one of the key weapons now in Luiten’s arsenal is his coach, Phil Allen who unlike many other coaches keeps a low profile.
Allen, who also lives in Holland, met up with Luiten earlier this week where the pair spent three hours working together on the practice putting green at Tour HQ.
Allen has been by Luiten’s side for many years and their hard work that delves into research and science is now clearly reaping dividends and showing all the ingredients for a winning recipe.
Luiten responded on day one of the Tour’s flagship event in the best manner possible and with his best starting score since a 63 last September on day one of the KLM Open.
“I had a couple decent finishes, but it’s one of these courses if you play well, you can shoot a low score; and if you are struggling with your game, you struggle to score, as well,” added Luiten.
“It’s a very tough and demanding golf course.
“But then it’s nice to bounce back after Ireland and it was just a couple bad days and I didn’t make any putts. If those conditions, if you’re not on top of your game, you’re going to struggle, and that’s what I did for a couple days. Sometimes that happens, and that’s golf. That’s why it’s so tough.
“So I was happy with the sunshine. You never know what it’s going to be here, but today’s been very pretty and I hopefully it stays like that the rest of the week.”
WHAT THE COACH SAYS USING GOLF SCIENCE IN WORKING WITH HOLLAND’S TOP-RANKED GOLFER:-
Phil Allen – Coach to Joost Luiten
“It is important to understand a players thoughts and processes, seeing his strengths and weaknesses and keeping the strengths in place and then develop a long-term plan to get the weaknesses improved on course.
“Then in regards to training to set-up a training schedule is a very, very important aspect for a players development. Also working together with a physical trainer to see where the blockages are in the body and you can have an adaption in an around that.
“So it’s all round I like to see a player improve so as to just to get consistent.”
