Self confidence is a vital tool for just about every professional sportsperson, and their words usually reflect that. Golfers are no different, so to hear one opening up about his struggles is a rare thing indeed.
Long considered to be one of the top emerging talents on the European/DP World Tour, Thomas Detry had one big problem; he couldn’t close the door, not in the big leagues at least. Despite giving himself numerous chances on the final day, his last individual professional victory had come on the Challenge Tour back in 2016 in just his 10th start as a professional. Six runner-up finishes and a handful of thirds only tell half the story.
Belgium is famous for beer and chocolate, and it seemed as though Detry was made of the latter as he continued to melt under the white heat of final-round, top-of-the-leaderboard action.
But he was just too good a player for that to be his lasting legacy, and he banished a near-decade’s worth of ghosts at the WM Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour and few could begrudge him.
And you might expect Detry to play the hits when talking about it, explain how he’d always believed in himself, how he knew it was only a matter of time before the pendulum swung his way if he kept giving himself chances, and how there was nothing better than being in contention on a Sunday.
But no, it was far from that. Appearing on the Sky Sports Golf Podcast, Detry took the opposite approach and admitted that doubts and fear – the latter in particular – had plagued him over the past few years.
“It sounds very weird what I’m going to say right now,” he began, “but I’ve had times when I was making birdies on a Friday when I was just thinking I don’t want to make birdies, I don’t want to put myself in this situation and fail again. That’s what I had going through my mind sometimes which is a horrible thing to think.
“You’re out there playing well and you’re thinking, ‘here we go, I’m going to be in contention again on Saturday or Sunday and I don’t like being in contention because I’m going to fail again.’
“Thoughts like that are horrendous and should never happen but we’re all human. It’s human nature in a way to be like that a bit. I had to overcome that and I still feel like I have to battle that. It comes a lot easier to some players but to me it was a bit more hard work and all the hard work paid off.”
No Belgian had ever played in a Ryder Cup before Nicolas Colsaerts broke that barrier down in 2012 and Thomas Pieters followed suit in 2016. Detry has always been touted as the most likely third Belgian to make the team, but the final-round struggles meant the requisite qualification points never materialised and he was easily overlooked when it came to captains’ picks.
But now, with a PGA Tour win in his back pocket and the demons at least temporarily sated, he’s very much in the early picture, but, perhaps as can be expected of somebody crippled with the self-doubt that Detry is, he’s not pinning all his hopes on a European berth for Bethpage.
That, he reasons, given how often he finds himself in the mix, is an issue that’ll sort itself out if he manages his emotions.
“That Ryder Cup would be a dream to play, but it’s not a goal in itself,” Detry said. “I’ve got all my other goals and if I achieve all my other goals I’ll be in that team no problem.
“Ultimately it’s whoever plays the best closer to the date, but watching the Ryder Cup in Italy and hopefully being part of one of the first teams in a while who wins on US soil would be amazing.”
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