Joost Luiten is relishing the expectation that comes with playing on home soil as he goes in search of his third title at the KLM Open.
The Dutchman is bidding to join Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer and Simon Dyson as just the fourth player to win the historic tournament on three separate occasions.
One of 13 home players, six-time DP World Tour winner Luiten is set to spearhead the Dutch challenge in his 18th appearance at his national Open, which he has won in 2013 and 2016.
“If you would have told me at the beginning of my career that I might have a chance to win it three times, I would have signed for it, so it would be very special,” he said.
“But I think the key for me is not to think ahead too much. I'm just going to try and enjoy it.
“I'm going to try and play my own game and then hopefully that's good enough to give myself a chance on Sunday.
“In golf, it's so hard to predict the winner, and at the end of the day, I have a bigger chance of not winning the tournament than I do winning.
“But I'm just going to go out there and hopefully I'll be there on Sunday and hopefully I can sneak the third one in.”
Luiten boasts a stellar record in the tournament, having recorded four top tens in addition to the two occasions he has hoisted the trophy.
He won the title for the first time in 2013 at Kennemer Golf & Country Club, overcoming Miguel Ángel Jiménez in a play-off, before he ended a two-year winless run on the DP World Tour three years later at The Dutch.
Luiten, who won the most recent of his DP World Tour titles in Oman in 2018, registered six top tens last season as he reached the DP World Tour Championship, and he has since produced five top 20 finishes so far this year.
“I'm feeling good,” he said. “I always look forward to this week. You know, it feels a little bit like my tournament.
“There's a lot going on around me as a player and I just try to enjoy that. It takes up a lot of my time.
“Not only this week, but already for months leading up to it. But I try to enjoy it as much as I can because you never know how long it lasts.”
The KLM Open is one of the DP World Tour’s founding events since its inception in 1972, with its only absence from the schedule coming in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
After three years at Bernardus Golf, Luiten’s training base when he is in his homeland, this year sees the event return to The International, near to Amsterdam, for the first time since 2019.
The one notable alteration to the course set-up from five years ago sees the 11th play as a short 127-year par three, rather than a 322-yard par four, and Luiten is looking forward to the challenge that lies ahead.
“I think this course is very challenging if it's windy,” said the 38-year-old, who finished tied tenth when the venue hosted a DP World Tour event for the first time in 2019.
“Today, there's no wind and then it's as easy as it gets. But when the wind picks up and the rough is up to your knees then it's going to be tough.
“So, you have got to hit fairways and then from there you can be aggressive into the greens.
“Luckily, it's soft this year because we had a lot of rain. That makes it a little bit easier to hit the fairways, but it makes it obviously a little bit longer than five years ago.
“So, I think you have got to hit the ball in the fairway and from there you can be aggressive.”
