On the night Thomas Detry won the WM Phoenix Open, he celebrated with takeout and his family.
“We put the girls to bed, ordered PF Chang’s, and when the delivery guy knocked he looked at me and said, ‘Wait, you won the tournament, right?’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s me.’ People think it is all glamorous. That night was kids, milk, takeout and a trophy on the counter.”
It was a very on-brand ending for a week that felt bigger than golf but deeply anchored in family, routine and a quiet kind of discipline.
Detry, 32, is the reigning champion of the WM Phoenix Open, the Belgian who walked into the loudest tournament on earth and turned the chaos into a personal breakthrough. His 2025 win made him the first Belgian-born player ever to win on the PGA Tour and only the third European to win in the history of the event. Overnight he jumped inside the top 20 in the world, secured spots in the majors and, in his words, made life “slightly easier” from a scheduling standpoint.
But in the moment, walking up the 18th fairway with a six-shot lead, he barely let himself think about any of it.
“I was so in the zone that not many things went through my mind. My caddie actually tapped me on the back on 16 and told me to enjoy it. Leading by six in a tournament like that is not something I will experience many times in my life.”
In case you’re living under a rock, we all know that Open week at TPC Scottsdale is unlike any other golf tournament. From practice rounds to Sunday’s final putt, the Waste Management Phoenix Open is part golf, part festival, part controlled riot. Detry calls it “nonstop craziness” in the best possible way.
“Everyone is there to party, but when you hit a great shot they have no choice but to support you. On 16 I played really well all four days. When you see the whole place erupt for a good shot, you feel like you’re contributing to the atmosphere.”
His favorite test was not the stadium par 3, but the 11th hole, a par 4 that hugs water and desert.
“Eleven requires the perfect tee shot. You can hit it right in the desert in a bush, left into the water, blocked behind a tree. You’re making double at best. On Sunday I knew it was a key moment. I birdied it with a tough pin, and that really helped the next few holes.”
What makes the story even better is that he almost skipped the week entirely.
The tournament before Phoenix was at Pebble Beach. Detry had started the year well with a fifth-place finish in Hawaii and felt taxed by the early stretch.
“I was sitting at Pebble thinking I was exhausted. We actually discussed not playing Phoenix and taking the week off. However, we decided to go and take it easy. No practice Monday. Almost nothing Tuesday. I played the pro-am Wednesday, felt good over the ball, and the rest is history. That is golf. You can plan everything and not perform, then show up tired and have the week of your life.”
That “week of his life” echoed all the way home. Golf is not a mainstream sport in Belgium, so Detry had no sense of the impact until the next morning.
“We live so far away from home that we didn’t realize what we had done. I woke up to messages saying I was on the front page of the main newspapers. It was the first time a golfer was on the front page. That is when it hit me.”
He is proudest of what the win means for Belgian golf.
“I feel like I have written a little piece of Belgian history. To represent the Belgian flag across the pond and win there for the first time… it’s pretty special.”
Detry’s life, though, is hardly rooted in one place. His wife, Sarah, is British. They spend time in London. Most of the year is in the United States chasing the PGA Tour. Winters, when the schedule eases, are for Dubai, where he answered our Zoom interview with his two young daughters, ages three and two, just a room away.
“We have a crazy life. In season, we are traveling every week. Dubai is where I can sleep in the same bed, work out every day, eat healthy, and practice every afternoon. October to early January is like my reset before we go to the West Coast and start again.”
That reset matters, especially after a year like 2025. For all the doors the Phoenix win opened, Detry is candid that the season did not snowball into the fairy tale some might expect.
“I was hoping the win would open the floodgates, that I would turn into one of those stories where someone almost loses their card and then wins a major. You see guys like that. I maybe put too much pressure on myself, thinking that because I won a big event, I should contend every week. I just missed the Tour Championship. I was in the conversation for the Ryder Cup and didn’t qualify. There were disappointments. But if you told me at the start of the year that I’d finish top 50 in the FedEx Cup and win one of the biggest events, I would have signed straight away.”
He is equally honest about the mental toll.
“It is just us, our caddie and a ball that doesn’t move. Millions of people watching, judging, saying ‘he hasn’t done well since.’ There are critics, there is support, there is everything. It is on us to navigate that jungle as best we can. I think I am doing pretty well with it, but it is a tough sport.”
One of the tools that steadies him now is something he discovered the Sunday morning of his win: the cold plunge.
“I did not sleep well the night before. Five-shot lead, trying to win my first tournament, I was nervous. Usually I do an ice bath after rounds to recover, but that morning I did one first thing. Five or six minutes. When I came out of it I felt strange but better, calmer. Since then I do it pretty much every morning during tournament weeks.”
That morning, he birdied the first hole and rode the momentum all the way to the trophy.
“If someone tells you they never get nervous, they are lying. The key is how you deal with it.”
On the technical side, his answer to what is in his bag is simple.
“Driver and putter. When those two are cooperating, I am dangerous. Iron play can be okay and you can still get around. But when the driver and putter are performing, it is usually a great week.”
Beyond the numbers, the images that mean the most are still the ones on the 18th green, his wife and daughters running out to meet him.
“Those pictures are all over our house. I look at those photos often and remind myself of how good it felt.”
Detry is fluent in four languages, a field-hockey-playing, tennis-loving kid from Belgium who discovered he was simply better at golf. He starred for the University of Illinois, where coach Mike Small helped sharpen his competitive edge and mental game, then turned pro with a self-imposed three-year deadline to “make something happen or do something else.” He made something happen.
His style on the greens reflects who he is.
“I would say freestyle. I am a feel player. As soon as I get too technical, it goes wrong. When I tried the super-structured green reading, it was not my vibe.”
Now he is preparing to return to Scottsdale as the defending champion, his first time ever in that role.
“I’m excited. There will be more media, more expectations. It will be on me to pace myself, stay focused and just play. The goal is simple. Play as well as I can and give myself a chance to go for a second win.”
Only one player has won the WM Phoenix Open back to back in recent history. Hideki Matsuyama did it in 2016 and 2017. Detry laughs remembering a recent Sunday round with him in Korea.
“I asked if he was playing Phoenix,” Detry says. “He said yes, of course. Then he goes, ‘I won it twice.’ He had almost forgotten he won it two years in a row.”
His dream foursome?
Roger Federer and Tiger Woods.
“Roger has started playing golf lately and I heard he’s pretty keen. Tiger… I’ve been a fan of his ever since I was born. I’ve never played with him, but he’s always been one of my idols. For a fourth spot? Probably a good friend.”
A starstuck memory from WMPO 2025?
“Meeting Michael Phelps. I’ve always been a huge fan.”
He also ran into Niall Horan from One Direction after the tournament.
“He gave me a big hug and said, ‘That was so cool.’”
Detry has not forgotten anything about his week in the desert, and neither have the fans who stayed up until the early hours of the morning to watch history. In a sport where nothing is guaranteed, his outlook is simple.
“There is no script for any of this. Phoenix happened so organically. All I can do is keep working, keep getting better, and hope I get to relive moments like that again.”
"People think it's all glamorous. That night was kids, milk, takeout and a trophy on the counter.”
“If someone tells you they never get nervous, they're lying. The key is how you deal with it. This year's goal? Play as well as I can and go for a second win."