Luke Joy (file picture).

By Kent Gray
Luke Joy is the MENA Tour’s answer to Eddie Pepperell, the European Tour star widely hailed for his insightful and often brutally honest blog on the trials and tribulations of the tour life.

Joy mightn’t yet enjoy the same audience as the reigning Commercial Bank Qatar Masters champion but his regular musings are not to be missed. The Yas Links-attached Englishman’s review of his performance in Tuesday’s Open Championship final qualifying on the Kent coast is the most recent case in point.

Starting with “Oh golf… how I loathe to love you!” the 30-year-old doesn’t hold back in his assessment of his is 36-holes at Prince’s in Sandwich, rounds of 79-77 seeing him finish +12 in a share of 44th position, 16 shots behind winner Tom Lewis, the Englishman who hails from Sir Nick Faldo’s old Welwyn City Garden G.C.

Related: Scotland closest of MENA Tour stars but no fairytale Carnoustie return

“I will keep this short but yesterday [Tuesday] was an absolute brutal test of golf down on the Kent coast. I was assigned Prince’s Golf Club for my Open qualifying and after a solid practice round on Monday, Tuesday turned into a long, painful nightmare,” Joy begins.

“After teeing off at 7.10am, my Open challenge and chance to play in the British Open was all but over by around 9.10am after opening with a disastrous 43 (+7) outward nine. The wind was up, the course was comparable to a road and I basically played like a complete plonker.”

We’re certainly not revelling in Joy’s unhappy form but do doff our cap at his ability to self vent analyse. Golf is richer for such honesty.

We’ll certainly be logged on when he resumes playing, likely at the KCB Karen Masters in Kenya from July 19-22, a Sunshine Tour stop that falls, coincidently, in the same week as the 147th Open at Carnoustie. Before Nairobi, Joy admits he has to “sort a few things out before I get back to competing again”.

“My head is a bit all over the place at the moment…I just can’t quite seem to let myself play good golf, which is very frustrating,” he wrote in his blog.

“I actually feel like I’m swinging the club well but just need to sort my mindset out and I think the results and scores will drastically improve. [It’s] just a blip that will be rectified, but sometimes you just have a bad day or week and I now need to get stuck in, clear my mind and get back on the horse.”

Giddy Up, Luke, giddy up.