By Kent Gray
Luke Joy admits he was “embarrassed” by a sometimes “absolutely useless” performance at the KLM Open but has vowed to use the humbling European Tour experience as the catalyst for a positive end to his topsy-turvy season.

The Yas Links-attached Englishman dodged the worst of the weather at The Dutch in Spijk but his golf game was sadly missing in action as he carded rounds of 74-73 to finish +5 and miss the cut by five strokes.

Joy, who earned the start at the Dutch courtesy of finishing second on last season’s MENA Tour, is now 0-3 cuts made on the European Tour. It was hardly the lead-in Joy envisaged ahead of the first stage of qualifying for the world’s second richest tour in Austria this week but the 29-year-old refuses to give up on his dream.

“Not the result I wanted by any stretch of the imagination but it makes me want to work harder and get better so I don’t feel I need to do anything differently when I play these events,” Joy told followers on his blog.

Joy was last off the 10th tee in the first round on Thursday but only managed to hit his opening drive before play was postponed due to high winds and a waterlogged course.

It meant he faced 36 holes on Friday but he struggled from the get-go despite “perfect” conditions,

“Unfortunately I was absolutely useless this morning. I couldn’t hit a shot to save my life and went out in 41 shots and was sat at +5 through 9 holes,” said Joy who is fighting back to full fitness after contracting malaria in June.

Related: Luke Joy hopes to translate his off course happiness on it

“I was absolutely gutted. It’s not been the best of years and to start the tournament off in that way after looking forward to this event all year was pretty hard to take.

“Obviously the European Tour is a step up from what I’m used to playing and all I can put my miserable outward nine down to this morning was wanting it way to much and trying way too hard to make a golf swing and force a score. In the end neither happened.

“I only really made a golf swing on my 15th hole after some good up and downs to limit the damage further. I did manage to birdie two of my last four holes to post +3 (74). It felt like I shot 90 out there. The course was there for the taking but I just didn’t bring anything to the table.”

After a quick lunch break, Joy’s second round got off to a nightmare start when he lost a ball in a gorse bush en-route to a double bogey. In the end, he departed in good company with 2014 Ryder Cup winning Welshman Jamie Donaldson also finishing +5.

“It just absolutely deflated me and to be honest I started to feel embarrassed by my performance as I had never hit the ball so erratically. I did manage then to play something that reassembled golf, found the middle of the bat a few times which was a nice change from what had come before. In the end I made a few birdies and unfortunately had a few bogeys and ended up carding a 73 (+2) for a +5 total.”

Joy thanked the MENA Tour and KLM Open organisers for the opportunity as well as his coach

Matt Parker who flew to The Netherlands to assist his charge. He also had his parents in the galleries but is now focused on redemption in Austria before returning to MENA Tour action at te Sept. 25-27 Abu Dhabi Open at Yas Links.

“I need to learn from this week and put it behind me and push on over the next few weeks.“