Thomas Detry, 2016 HotelPlanner Tour graduate, claimed his first PGA TOUR title with an emphatic seven-shot victory at the WM Phoenix Open on Sunday.
Detry’s win at TPC Scottsdale sees him rise to a career-high 22nd in the Official World Golf Ranking, and improves his hopes of appearing in the European Ryder Cup team under Captain Luke Donald later this year.
The Belgian’s rise to the top of the golfing ranks comes following a glittering amateur career where in 2010 he represented Europe in the Junior Ryder Cup, losing out to a USA team which included Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.
Detry decided to enter the professional ranks in 2016 and tee it up on the HotelPlanner Tour. He immediately caught the attention of the golfing world with a stunning wire-to-wire triumph at the Bridgestone Challenge where he shot 29-under-par to equal the record for the lowest score-to-par in the Tour’s history, while setting the record for the largest winning margin with a 12-shot victory.
The 32-year-old made every cut on the HotelPlanner Tour in 2016 and earned promotion to the DP World Tour after finishing 15th on the season-long Rankings. He never looked back and in 2018 he won the World Cup of Golf for Belgium with partner Thomas Pieters in Australia.
Detry made history on Sunday by becoming the first Belgian to win on the PGA TOUR and, with his PGA TOUR membership exemption now extended through to 2027, he also has a Masters debut at Augusta National in April to look forward to.
“Winning has been a goal of mine for the last four or five years,” he said. “Every year I'm like, this the year I'm going to win, so this is amazing.
“I have given myself plenty of chances in the past and never been able to conclude so to be able to put out a statement like that is pretty incredible. I am just over the moon, so happy.”
