Thomas Detry had a chance for his first PGA Tour win at Pebble Beach, but Mother Nature (and Wyndham Clark’s putter!) had other plans.
During an appearance on this week’s GOLF’s Subpar podcast, when listing some of his favorite PGA Tour courses, the 31-year-old Belgian omitted the famed seaside links, which was the site of one of his best career finishes.
“Yeah it was, it was a good chance. It was definitely a good chance,” Detry, who first named Riviera and TPC Sawgrass to answer the original question, told co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz.
Detry started the weekend at Pebble, the second of the PGA Tour’s Signature Events for 2024, in a three-way share of the lead, but Wyndham Clark blitzed the six-time U.S. Open host for a course-record 60. That was enough to push Clark into the lead and ultimately win the tournament after the final round was canceled after a severe rain and wind storm hit Central California.
Despite a 69 in Round 3, Detry finished in a tie for fourth, three shots back.
“I’m not guaranteed and all the other [Signature Events] and, you know, locking in the top five at an elevated was big as well. You know, start of the year,” Detry said.
The final round wasn’t canceled until Sunday evening with the hope the event could have finished on Monday. So Detry and many other pros were still in the Monterey area during the storm.
He told Knost and Stoltz there was no chance of them getting the final round in on Monday.
“It would have been comical if y’all would have had to go out and try and play in that,” said Knost who was at the event that work working for CBS Sports.
“it would have been dangerous,” Detry said. “My two little girls, my wife, we were in a house with no electricity, no hot water. We were waiting to hear back from the PGA Tour. Okay, what’s going to happen? It was getting dark. Nothing to give them a bath. No machines to heat up the milk. Just nothing.
“We were just running out of Internet. We’re running out of batteries. I had to run in the car to charge up the milk machine and to charge up my phone.
“It was a weird, weird weekend. I mean, Yeah. There was no chance we could have played. Not even close.”
That didn’t stop some pros from considering the possibilities of playing in the winds which reached 70 mph or more during the storm.
“It would have been quite funny,” Detry joked.
Ultimately the Tour canceled the final round as the area around Pebble Beach was still in a state of emergency due to the storm. However, players might have gotten a preview on Wednesday when, in slightly weaker winds, Tony Finau tried to hit a driver on the famed 7th hole. Finau clocked over 170 mph ball speed and just flew it over the green at the 105-yard par-3.
For more from Detry, including what it was like to play against Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth as juniors, check out the full episode of Subpar below.
