Golfer loses three clubs up tree trying to retrieve ball

Dutch golfer Joost Luiten contrived to lose three clubs trying to retrieve an errant tee shot that ended up in a tree at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

The season climax at Jumeirah Golf Estates was won by Nicolai Hojgaard in the biggest win of the Dane’s career so far.

But Luiten’s misadventure also caught the eye as the Dutchman finished as one of only three men over par across four days of golf in the United Arab Emirates.

Having hit his drive wildly off line on the ninth hole, the 37-year-old attempted to retrieve his ball by hurling his driver at it, embedding the club in the branches.

An attempt to jab it away with a stick also failed, forcing Luiten to return to his bag for a couple of irons.

They, too, ended up tree-bound, with a now riled Luiten striking his bag in anger and playing on with just eleven clubs at his disposal.

A nimble volunteer kindly restored his clubs to full complement a few minutes later after the Dutchman recorded a bogey five.

“I had just made bogey at the eighth,” Luiten said after signing for a round of 73. “I was frustrated, one of those weeks [when] nothing went my way.

“I lost it and threw my driver and it got stuck up a tree. That sums up my week nicely.

“I tried to get it out by throwing some other clubs at it and [two] other clubs got stuck up the tree so I couldn’t get them out.”