Thomas Detry, who you might know as the first and only Belgian to win on the PGA Tour (2025 WM Phoenix Open), is having a stellar season on the LIV Golf circuit. The 33-year-old hasn’t won but he has five top-10s in eight starts, including a runner-up finish in Hong Kong, and at the halfway point of this week’s event, at bruising Valderrama in Spain, is just two back of Tyrrell Hatton’s six-under lead.
So that’s why at LIV’s Virginia event last month, Detry was so bullish not only about his game but also about his chances of punching his ticket to the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. “I’m not worried about it,” he said that week. “The way I’m playing golf, I don’t think it’s possible for me to not play the U.S. Open.”
Detry’s odds did look good, by way of four potential pathways, the first of which was an exemption awarded to the top LIV player not otherwise exempt and in the top 3 of the 2026 LIV Golf individual standings as of May 18.
Heading into the Virigina event, Detry held that spot with Elvis Smylie and Anthony Kim nipping at his heels. But then along came a less obvious challenger: Australian Lucas Herbert, who won the tournament by four and, with it, a golden ticket to Shinnecock.
Path 2 for Detry was elevating himself to top 60 in the world by the end of the PGA Championship, which was conducted the week after LIV Virginia. Detry was in the PGA field (via a special PGA of America invite) and headed into the week ranked 61st in the world. He has a mixed record in his 14 major starts but has had some standout performances. At the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont, Detry finished 23rd; a year before that, at Pinehurst, he finished 14th. His best major finish came at the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla, where he tied for 4th.
“My strategy at majors is sort of to just keep the same routine as in a normal tournament and treat the major as if it was a normal tournament,” he said at LIV Virginia. “I feel like you’re already beating half the field because some of the people are sort of shooting themselves out of the field by putting too much pressure on themselves.”
But at the PGA at Aronimink, Detry was one of those players who shot himself out of contention, pairing an opening 72 with a second-round 73 to miss the cut by one. The early bag-packing was costly, and not just in the financial sense. Still, Detry had two more potential routes to Shinnecock, beginning with the 36-hole gauntlet that is U.S. Open final qualifying.
After missing the weekend in Philadelphia, Detry hopped a flight to London, where he played the U.S. Open final qualifier at Walton Heath. Seven spots were up for grabs and Detry looked destined to grab one of them when he eagled his 34th hole to move to 10 under overall. (“Thought I qualified,” he said later.) But 10 under would prove good enough only for a place in a 4-for-1 playoff, and the extra holes did not go Detry’s way with Frenchman Ugo Coussaud prevailing. Adding salt to the wound, Detry finished last in the playoff, meaning he also was shut out of an alternate spot.
“I’ve been beaten up pretty well the last couple weeks, so I’ve given up that,” he said, referring to worrying about getting into the U.S Open. “I’m just focusing on having a good week this week.”
A great week at Valderrama would be even better, because Detry does have one last potential route to the Open: by sliding into the top 60 in the world before the USGA’s second “top 60” qualifying cutoff of June 15.
A win in Spain would surely accomplish that; a runner-up might, too. LIV players earn about 23 World Ranking points for a LIV win (which is less than half of what winners in PGA Tour full-field events receive) and runners-up receive about 13.4 points. Detry is currently 66th in the ranking with 88.52029 points. Barring a wave of significant moves behind Detry, a 13-point jump at week’s end would move him to about 58th or 59th in the ranking with one event left — the Canadian Open next week — for any PGA Tour players to catch him.
But first things first: play the weekend at Valderrama as well as he did the first two rounds when he went bogey-free for his first 34 holes.
“If I end up qualifying,” Detry said of the U.S. Open, “it’s going to be a very well-deserved qualified spot.”
