‘Shame’: Pros protest exclusion from big-money events

The world of pro golf is a cutthroat one, with even some of the best players having to fight their way onto the tournament fields. Joost Luiten successfully fought his way to the DP World Tour Championship earlier this month. But he wasn’t so lucky with a new upcoming DP World Tour event.

After being left out of the big-money field of the Nedbank Golf Challenge, Luiten took to Instagram to express his disbelief and dismay, and some of his fellow European professionals joined in to support him and criticize the tournament.

Here’s what you need to know.

Joost Luiten decries missing Nedbank Challenge: ‘Hard to understand’

The most difficult field to get into on the DP World Tour is the DP World Tour Championship. That was no problem for veteran Joost Luiten.

Throughout the 2025 season, Luiten collected three top-5 finishes and earned enough Race to Dubai points to be one of only 52 players to qualify for the event.

At the end of the season he was ranked 33rd in the season standings. The Nedbank Golf Challenge in honor of Gary Player starts on December 4 and is part of the 2026 season. Although the field is limited, the current limit is 66 players, 14 more than the DP World Tour Championship.

Nevertheless, Luiten is currently the first reserve for the tournament. Making matters worse, Nedbank has one of the largest DP World Tour wallets all year round, worth $6 million.

In an Instagram post last weekend, Luiten complained about his position and expressed his confusion about not qualifying.

“Being the first reserve for the Nedbank Golf Challenge… honestly it’s hard to understand,” Luiten wrote.

“I finished 33rd on the Order of Merit, earned a place in the biggest tournament of the DP World Tour Championship 2025, but didn’t get into a smaller event with a bigger field and more places than the tour championship! I just don’t get it!” Luiten continued. “Hard to understand or explain how the @dpworldtour world tour makes these decisions.”

Luiten’s exclusion comes down to qualification criteria. For example, any player who has a DP world tour event with a $2 million purse from 2024-2026 is eligible for the Nedbank Golf Challenge. Although Luiten has six DP World Tour victories to his name, his last victory came in 2018.

Meanwhile, several players who finished worse than Luiten in the 2025 Race to Dubai standings have won since 2024, putting them above Luiten in the field qualifying system.

Fellow professionals protest against the exclusion from Luitens DP World Tour

While Luiten was open and honest about his difficult situation on Instagram, he remained diplomatic with his comments. But some of his fellow professionals did not.

After Luiten had posted his long complaint on Instagramseveral DP World Tour players responded to the post expressing their support for Luiten.

Pro Dan Brown called the decision a “disgrace.”

“This is a shame and should be based on last season’s rankings,” Brown wrote in a response. “Reward those who have played the best golf all season and not just one week of the year…”

DP World Tour professional Brandon Robinson Thompson encouraged Luiten to “say it louder.”

Fellow pro Jorge Campillo noted that while Luiten didn’t make the field, some LIV Golf pros have qualified.

“It must be nice to see the LIV guys in front of you, that last win was in 2023,” Campillo wrote.

French pro Romain Langasque wrote: “100% agree. We raised this at the players’ committee this year… but the tour didn’t want to change the way to qualify. The same goes for the January invite.”

Ultimately, Luiten gets to work on it. He noted that he is proud of his results last season, and he hopes that someone will back down and allow him to play against Nedbank.

“I’m proud of the season I’ve had and the progress I’ve made, and I’m ready to play. Hopefully a spot will open up, but either way, I’ll keep going in 2026.”

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