{"id":373403,"date":"2026-01-16T14:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T14:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/373403\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T14:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T14:18:07","slug":"liv-golf-2026-new-player-analysis-thomas-detry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/373403\/","title":{"rendered":"LIV Golf 2026 New Player Analysis: Thomas Detry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Major Eligibility in 2026: Likely to receive an invite to the PGA Championship as a\u00a0top-100\u00a0player in the OWGR.\u00a0Potential to qualify for the U.S. Open if\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0still ranked inside the\u00a0top-60\u00a0in the OWGR as of May 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

2025 PGA TOUR RANKS\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scoring Average: 70.56\u00a0(145th)
Driving Distance: 306.5\u00a0(58th)
Driving Accuracy: 56.75% (143rd)
Greens in Regulation: 65.18% (142nd)
Birdie Average (per tournament): 3.54\u00a0(164th)
Scrambling: 59.14% (102nd)
Strokes Gained: Approach: -0.16\u00a0(140th)
Strokes Gained: Off the Tee: +0.17\u00a0(65th)
Strokes Gained: Around the Green:\u00a0-0.08 (121st)
Strokes Gained: Putting:\u00a0+0.13\u00a0(69th)\u00a0<\/p>\n

STATISTICAL PROFILE\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although he had a down year statistically in 2025, Detry is historically power-oriented player who hits it a long way off the tee but can struggle at times with driving accuracy. He is an above average iron player who can get hot and cold on approach. He\u2019s struggled in the past with putting under pressure, but he\u2019s consistently gained strokes putting overall for the majority of his career.<\/p>\n

Statistical lookalike: Thomas Pieters\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

INTERESTING FACTS\u00a0<\/p>\n

He started playing golf at age 5 but spent his childhood years playing tennis and field hockey before focusing seriously on golf around age 11.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He’s a lifelong friend of fellow Belgian and 4Aces GC player Thomas Pieters<\/a>. They studied Business Management together at the University of Illinois (2012-2016), and in 2018, the duo won the World Cup of Golf for Belgium, marking the country’s first victory in the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2010, he\u00a0represented\u00a0Europe in the Junior Ryder Cup, where his team lost to a strong USA team that included future PGA Tour stars Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u00a0represented\u00a0Belgium at the European Amateur Team Championship and Europe in the Palmer Cup in 2014 and 2015.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At Illinois, he was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2013 and the Big Ten Golfer of the Year in 2015.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After winning the 2016 Big Ten Championship, he was\u00a0ranked\u00a0as the 5th best amateur golfer in the world by the World Amateur Golf Ranking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2016 he made his professional debut on the Challenge Tour, where he won the Bridgestone Challenge by a\u00a0record\u00a012 shots and tied the record for lowest score under par (29-under).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In June 2019, he set a Guinness World Record for the fastest hole\u00a0of\u00a0golf by an individual, completing a 500-yard par-5 in just 1 minute and 29 seconds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He is a two-time Olympian,\u00a0representing\u00a0Belgium at Tokyo 2020 (T22) and Paris 2024 (T9).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Major Eligibility in 2026: Likely to receive an invite to the PGA Championship as a\u00a0top-100\u00a0player in the OWGR.\u00a0Potential…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-373403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}