After all, the Netherlands has had brilliant soccer teams at club and international level, it has had a recent Wimbledon tennis champion, it is big, I'm told, in handball, and there is nothing its sporting aficianados love more than a good cycle race. So it's not as if they're anti-sport per se. It beats Muntz, too, and he should know. Muntz's triumph in Doha may do something for the game in the Netherlands. However, the slightly sad probability is that it will achieve very little beyond a swift flurry of headlines this week.
Some nations are pre-disposed to forge a relationship with golf.
The suspicion is that Holland is one of the ain'ts. And the argument that a country needs a hero before it embraces golf does not hold up in fact. So it seems likely that Muntz's victory may remain no more than a triumph for himself, for his faithful Vanessa and his immediate family. I think not. Muntz's achievement in the desert on Sunday was a victory for the individual, and good luck to him.