Golf-Luiten loses three clubs in a tree at DP World Tour Championship

As a tournament official climbed the tree and threw sticks at the well-lodged clubs in vain, Luiten continued his own rescue efforts by launching a third club at the tree. A couple of throws later he had lost a third club.

Golfers losing balls is a common enough occurrence but Dutch professional Joost Luiten took mislaying equipment to another level when he lost three of his clubs up a tree at the DP World Tour Championships in Dubai on Sunday. Days after Rory McIlroy's tee shot landed on a spectator's lap, Luiten, frustrated after making a bogey, threw his driver at a tree where it got stuck.

He threw another club in a bid to retrieve the driver but the tree's thick branches and leaves caught that as well. As a tournament official climbed the tree and threw sticks at the well-lodged clubs in vain, Luiten continued his own rescue efforts by launching a third club at the tree.

A couple of throws later he had lost a third club. "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," said Luiten, who has won six titles on the European Tour.

Luiten tried jumping and hitting the tree with a standard bearer's sign before eventually giving up. He played the rest of the hole with 11 clubs before a volunteer rescued the lodged clubs. The Dutchman ended the championship three-over-par, placing third from the bottom. Nicolai Hojgaard won the tournament.

"That sums up my week nicely," Luiten added.