The Punter's De-brief: Detry off the mark in style

Steven Rawlings
Published on 10 Feb 2025 at 09:50
Updated on 10 Feb 2025 at 10:15
3 min read

Golfer Thomas Detry — Thomas Detry with the Phoenix Open trophy

Thomas Detry has won the Phoenix Open and Haotong Li the Qatar Masters. Steve Rawlings returns to look back on their victories here...

Detry demolishes the field in Phoenix
Li holds off Danish rally in Qatar
Read my Gensis Invitational preview here

Having trailed by eight with a round to go, the pre-event favourite, Scottie Scheffler, was matched at around 6/17.00 when he started the fourth and final round of the Phoenix Open with birdies at four of the first six holes, but that was as good as it got for the course specialist.

His birdie at the sixth was his last of the day and after a 41 on the back-nine, the world number one finished the week down in a tie for 25^th.

Pre-event 160.0159/1 chance, Thomas Detry, who had led by a couple of strokes at halfway, began the final round leading by five and despite the fact that 85% of five-stroke leaders had gone on to convert on the PGA Tour since 1996, the Belgian was uneasy at the head of the market, drifting from around 1.558/15 to 1.674/6 prior to the start of round four.

The drift wasn't unexpected given Detry hadn't won anywhere for nine years, that his sole title beforehand had been on the HotelPlanner Tour, and that drama is almost a given at TPC Scottsdale.

Danny Lee and Martin Laird had both failed to covert three-stroke 54-hole leads recently and Spencer Levin had finished third in 2012 having led by six so there were certainly grounds for believing Detry could be vulnerable, but he was anything but in the end.

Rasmus Hojgaard, who had been one of the four men tied for second with a round to go, birdied three of his first five holes but his challenge effectively ended when he gave all three shots back before the turn and although Daniel Berger pressed briefly on the back-nine, he was cooked when he bogeyed the famous par three 16^th, although nobody really looked like getting to the leader.

Having been two-under for the round and comfortably in control, Detry birdied his last four holes to become the first Belgian to win on the PGA Tour.

His impressive 24-under-par total is four shy of the tournament record but it's the tournament low since Tom Weiskopf renovated the course prior to the 2015 edition.

The 32-year-old eventually won by a remarkable seven strokes, so it was far from the dramatic finale that we usually experience at TPC Scottsdale.

Impressive Li holds on in Qatar

Pre-event 65.064/1 chance, Haotong Li, began the final round of the Qatar Masters leading 130.0129/1 chance, Brandon Robinson Thompson, by two and the rest by four but he too drifted before he teed off.

Peter Uihlein had been leading by a stroke with a round to go when he won at Doha on the Asian Tour at the start of December and in 25 previous editions of the Qatar Masters there, only one winner, Ernie Els 20 years ago, had been trailing by more than three strokes after 54 holes.

As many as 15 of the previous 25 winners had been in front after three rounds and I thought Li was a very fair price at around 1.9310/11 on Saturday afternoon, but he drifted all the way out to evens before the off.

Li started the final round in great style, with birdies at the first two holes, and for much of the day he appeared in control despite not playing at his best, but one man emerged as a huge danger - Denmark's Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen who had been a 22/123.00 chance with 18 to play.

Attempting to emulate Els and win from five adrift, the young Dane started very nicely, playing his first ten holes in five-under-par and he momentarily hit the front with back-to-back birdies at 15 and 16 when Li bogeyed the tough 15^th.

Neergaard-Petersen was matched at a low of 1.654/6 but his lead didn't last very long at all.

Playing behind him. Li drove the par four 16^th green to record the simplest of birdies and the Dane missed from inside three feet for par at the par three 17^th.

Li was back in front, but it was still on a knife edge when Neergaard-Petersen found the par five 18th green in two.

The Dane's eagle putt at the last missed by the smallest of margins just as Li's birdie attempt at 17 also missed by millimetres but the two were tied at the top once more after the Dane had tapped in for birdie and an impressive seven-under-par 65.

Needing a par to take the event to a playoff or a birdie or better to win, Li's second shot looked like it may find the green before it drifted slowly into a greenside bunker from where he hit a tame shot that left him 15 feet for the four.

It was odds-on we were going to get a playoff, but Li was having none of it.