As part of a new series highlighting the stories of DP World Tour members set to compete at this summer's Olympic Games, Thomas Detry talks about his Olympic ambitions, being on the road with a young family and why meditation helped him to break the top 50 on the Official Golf World Ranking.
I've always told people about the Olympics that as a golfer, it’s not really something that I grew up dreaming about, because it wasn’t actually part of the Olympics until 2016. It’s a kind of funny relationship where suddenly in 2016 it’s like, “Oh wow, we actually also have a shot at a medal.” But obviously we all grew up watching the Olympics on TV, so in a way, it’s a dream come true. When I was little I remember watching tennis and hockey and all the other sports and seeing people bring medals back for our country, and it would be incredible to bring a medal back for Belgium.
I have a lot of expectations for myself, but I’m also really looking forward to having a full experience this year. I participated in the one in Tokyo, and obviously it was just a nature of the time, but there were a lot of restrictions with COVID-19 and we couldn't really have that full Olympics experience. It was painful to travel into Tokyo, and it was painful to travel out of it. We weren't allowed to go and see different sports, and we were just kind of stuck in a hotel room and just going to the golf course back and forth. So, I'm looking forward to having a full experience this year and watching some other sports.
Belgium is kind of the capital of the world of field hockey. It actually used to be my first sport, and I’ve got a couple of friends who are on the team, so I’m very much looking forward to watching their games if I’ve got time. I’m also planning to pop in and out of the Olympic Village. We aren’t staying in the village because we decided with the Belgian committee that we will stay on site, which makes it pretty easy for golf, but if we have an afternoon free, we'll probably be popping into the village or where some of the events are happening. I had a short taste of it during Tokyo, but it didn't last more than five or six hours, so hopefully we have a good feeling of what it is like to be in the village.
I wish I could have spent more time with Adrien Dumont De Chassart this year ahead of the Olympics, too, but I think we’ll get some great time together. With the way the PGA TOUR is scheduled with Signature Events, it’s hard so I haven't spent as much time with him as I would have liked, but hopefully we can bring a medal back for Belgium.
I’m really looking forward to the challenge of Le Golf National, and I think having previous experience is going to be a big benefit. Unlike other sports, we’re playing at a venue I would imagine most of the guys in the field have actually played before. For me, like Adrien, I played it a lot as an amateur, then the French Open as an amateur back in I think 2010, and I’ve also played in the French Open many times. It’s not quite like playing at home, but it's as close as it gets.
When we were younger, we’d come down a few times because it's one of the top courses within 2-3 hours of travel, and we don’t really have that type of course and facilities back in Belgium. It’s a great place to practice because the course is demanding. I've done well in the past at the French Open, too, with a couple of top 10s. The rough is thick, and it will be playing as tough as it gets, so I'm very much looking forward to the challenge. I think in general going somewhere that you’re familiar with makes a big difference. It’s been like that on the PGA TOUR this year, which is my second year out there. This year, most of the tournaments that I've played were the second time that I was playing them. So I was kind of familiar with where I go to have dinner and where to stay, little things like that. When you're familiar with the golf course, too, it makes everything more straightforward. You don't second guess yourself, you know how to play the course, so I think that's really helpful.
I think this year and my recent results in majors this season have given me a lot more confidence coming into the Olympics, too. I remember a couple of years ago, when I was still a bit of a rookie, a Rolex Series event used to be the big event. They are still massive, but you have a little bit less of that pressure when you come to these types of events now. My schedule and my tournaments are kind of evolving around majors – they are really the ones where I want to peak now – so I think that at other tournaments, that helps you have a little more of a relaxed feeling, a little bit less tension and feel that little bit more comfortable.
In general, I feel like my career has been kind of on an upward, linear trend, which means that I'm doing something right, and I think trusting my process has been a bit of a catalyst for results this season. You know, we choose to believe that if I keep doing what I'm doing now and keep working on the good things with my coach and my team, and bringing that mental aspect of it as well, I think it can only keep going better.
I think this year and my recent results in majors this season have given me a lot more confidence coming into the Olympics, too.
Meditation is something I’ve been doing a little bit that’s really helped this year. I don't do a lot of it, but you know it’s happened to me a few times where I felt a bit nervous the night before, even the morning before a round, and I feel like meditation has really helped me with that.
It's actually not an easy thing to do. You’re trying to trick your brain, and my brain is kind of a forward thinker. Usually, I think a lot of about the negative scenarios as well, or the worst-case scenario and so with meditation I'm trying to take my mind away from it. Even realising that my mind is going there is already a good step forward, so I can be like, “OK, Thomas, let’s not go down that path, let’s go down the positive path and cut the negative thoughts.” I've done it kind of before the round, and I've done it the night before as well. I see it as practice, training your brain into cutting out those bad thoughts. It's not easy to do but when you realise your brain is already going somewhere negative, even realising that’s what is happening is already a step forward. In the past I used to not really realise it and just kind of keep going and spiralling down the negative path.
For me, there’s also been a big benefit in having my family on the road with me this year. My wife, Sarah, is British, so we have a base in England and we have a base in Dubai, so we kind of split our year into two, spending the winter in Dubai and then the summers in London and a small base in the Dominic Republic, which we kind of use in the time off to avoid going all the way back to the U.K. from the States with our two young girls.
My wife was like, ‘All right, well, if you do this American adventure, we have to do it together and we have to do it with the kids.” I haven’t done one week on my own so far this year, and it’s incredibly helpful not spending time away from home or being far away from my family. I was thinking like there's people that are at home that work in the city or work late at night, and they probably see their kids less than I do. I see my kids all the time, put them to bed every day. When I'm on the golf course I don't see them, but then I'll probably go and pick them up from daycare and spend the afternoon with them, so it’s pretty fun. It helps take your mind off golf, too, when you’ve got your kids with you!
All of it has been a bit of a knock-on effect this year, to be honest, to the point where goals have changed a bit for me. Like at the start of the year, my goal was to finish inside the top 50 of the FedExCup and focus on America because it's tough to split yourself on both tours. Obviously, we got off to a great start, and then suddenly now top 50 looks like it’s locked in, so now it’s about top 30, getting into the TOUR Championship, that’ll be an amazing achievement. I'm really striving for that. And then I've played well in two majors this year, so I'm projected up the rankings on the DP World Tour, too, so I'm looking forward to finish the season off very strongly on the PGA TOUR and then come back here in Europe and try to finish as high as possible in the DP World Tour and Race to Dubai – especially living in Dubai.
And obviously, I’m hoping for success in Paris, too!
