Livescore
With his lead slipping away, Thomas Detry struck the shot of the final round to win the WM Phoenix Open for his first PGA Tour victory on Sunday.
“It’s incredible,” Detry said, “It’s what dreams are made of.”
A back-nine charge from Daniel Berger had trimmed Detry’s lead to two shots momentarily before he dialed in a 9-iron from 180 yards that bounced once on the green, hopped and spun to a stop inside 2 feet from the hole to set up a birdie.
“Everything he’s doing is obviously very good. He should keep doing that,” said Justin Thomas, who finished T-6 and was commentating on CBS Sports. “That’s why he’s leading the tournament and I’m sitting here done for the week.”
Detry closed with birdies on the final four holes to shoot 6-under 65 at TPC Scottsdale and beat Michael Kim and Berger by seven strokes.
The 32-year-old Detry, the 2016 Big Ten champion for Illinois, has steadily improved up the ranks since turning pro but victory had been elusive. The two-time Belgian Olympian’s only previous win? By 12 strokes on the DP World Tour’s Challenge Tour.
Detry built a commanding five-stroke lead with rounds of 66-64-65 but the likes of Jordan Spieth and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler were looming.
Detry birdied two of the first three holes – a 12-footer at 1 and a left-to-right bending 14 footer at 3 — around a bogey at the second. He strung together seven pars in a row before a birdie at 11 and was waltzing to victory. But not so fast. After a three-putt par at 13 and a string of three birdies by Berger, the last of which reduced Detry’s lead down to two strokes, Detry drained his birdie putt at 15 and kept making birdies on his way to the clubhouse to finish with a 72-hole total of 24-under 260.
Scheffler birdied four of his first six holes to jump up the leaderboard but he could ill afford a bogey and made one at No. 12. The wheels fell off and he came home in 41 to finish T-25. Spieth closed in 68 and finished T-4, his best result since the WM Phoenix Open a year ago. Monday qualifier Will Chandler shot 66 and finished T-6 to earn a spot in the Mexico Open in two weeks.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: WM Phoenix Open 2025: Thomas Detry wins first PGA Tour event
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