Thomas Detry cruised at the WM Phoenix Open last month, although that might be an understatement.
The 32-year-old pro won by seven at TPC Scottsdale to pick up his first career PGA Tour victory, but what’s ironic is he almost didn’t even play the life-changing tournament to begin with.
Detry joined GOLF’s Subpar podcast last week to discuss the victory, and he explained how the Phoenix stop was his fifth tournament in six weeks. He also planned to play the following week’s Genesis Invitational, which would give him six starts in seven weeks. He was tired, and while at Pebble Beach the week before he debated skipping the WM Phoenix Open.
Eventually, with everything already booked for Phoenix, he decided to play. But he took Monday off and arrived at the range at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, immediately started chunking shots and was again questioning his decision.
“I was all over the place,” Detry said. “I called my coach, who was in Riyadh with [Adrian] Meronk on LIV, it was 3 a.m. for him. He wakes up, looks at my swing, and it was all over the place. I was kind of tired with the lower body and everything. He gives me a little tip, fixes it and the rest is history.”
And that tip?
“It’s really stupid but I have the tendency of being kind of long and a bit behind, and all I was trying to do was be like short and wide,” Detry said, imitating the motion on camera. “Just keep my left arm straight and be as wide as possible [when taking the club back]. That’s all I was thinking and I was just striking it.”
Detry opened with a 66 and followed with rounds of 64, 65, 65 to win.
“The last couple of weeks [before Phoenix] I was in good form, but not really on top of my game,” he said. “I just found a little something and was confident all week.”
Detry was 53rd at the Genesis and has missed his last two cuts, although thanks to his win he’s still 9th in the FedEx Cup standings.
You can listen to the entire interview with Detry here, or watch it on YouTube here or below.
