Rory McIlroy was candid enough to admit that he wasn’t at his best at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai this week. The World No.2 became the Race to Dubai champion – it was his fifth – even before the tournament began, but a tied 22nd was pretty unsatisfactory.

The final day of the tournament, however, wasn’t about the Northern Irishman. Rather, a Dutchman became the show-stopper for wrong reasons. Things became chaotic, leaving the fans in a fit. To be precise, Joost Luiten lost his cool during the final round on Sunday.

Luiten’s tree trouble

The six-time DP World Tour winner hit his second shot at the eighth. He then struck a wayward tee shot at the ninth. His exasperation reached a tipping point. So much so that the Dutchman flung his driver up a tree. It didn’t come down.

He made a valiant attempt to retrieve the driver by throwing two other drivers at it; just that those met the same fate and were stuck in the branches. A few jumps from the golfer to catch hold of the lost clubs proved to be in vain.

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An attempt to climb up the tree and shake the branches turned out to be futile as well. Eventually, with the help of a volunteer, the clubs were retrieved in the nick of time for Luiten to play the 10th. The incident received many reactions on social media.

As the DP World Tour posted the video clip on its X handle, The Penalty Drop Golf Blog & Podcast responded: “F****d around and found out.” Fellow golfer Bradley Neil posted tongue in cheek: “We need the video of the driver throw.” Jay Houston wrote: “A mistake you should only make once. He’s managed to do it three times.”

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Luiten himself reflected on the incident after his round. “I had just made bogey at the eighth. I was frustrated, one of those weeks (when) nothing went my way,” he told the DP World Tour website.

Not a good week

The 37-year-old added: “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.”

In terms of hilarious/chaotic incidents, Luiten’s driver-throw wasn’t a case in isolation at the Earth Course. A couple of days ago, McIlroy’s errant tee shot had fallen on a woman spectator’s lap, prompting the golfer to play it off her leg.

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