How Thomas Detry Won the 2025 WM Phoenix Open

Thomas Detry won the 2025 WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale's Stadium Course, 24 under par, by 7 strokes, without ever letting one hole get away from him, and his best week of the year on the greens was only his 2nd-best number that week.

Every strokes-gained figure in this piece comes from DataGolf, and their work is the only reason a Monday morning breakdown like this one exists. Open their record on this week and the honest headline is a putting-led win built on the best approach week in the field. Putting produced 43% of Detry's measured advantage over the field, 2nd of 77 players, above the season-winner average of 37% to that point. Approach was even more dominant by rank: 1st of 77, 36% of the total. Put those two categories together and 79% of everything he gained over the field came from just two clubs.

He also did it with zero double bogeys across all 4 rounds. Let's walk the Winner's Five and see exactly where the 7 shots came from.

How the win was built

Scoring conversion: 28 birdies or better, 4 bogeys against a field average of 8.4, 0 double bogeys or worse, over 72 holes. Final round 65, +4.8 strokes against the field that day. Led after 54 holes.

*Average share across the 5 earlier 2025 winners with a strokes-gained record. Shares count only the categories where the winner beat the field, so a category where he lost strokes reads 0%, and rounding can leave the four shares a point short of or above 100. Strokes gained: Data Golf. The field is the 77 players who completed all four rounds.

Off the tee, Detry gained 3.4 strokes on the field, 12th of 77 players who finished all 4 rounds. That is 17% of his total advantage, right in line with the 15% share this season's winners have averaged from the driver. Solid, unremarkable, exactly what you want a category to be when it is not the story.

Approach is where the story starts. Plus 7.0 strokes on the field, 1st of 77, the best iron week anyone in that field produced. That was 36% of his advantage, a touch under the 39% this season's winners have averaged with their irons. That gap is not because his approach play was ordinary. It was the best in the field. It reads low only because something else on his card was even bigger.

Around the green, Detry gained just 0.7 strokes, 33rd of 77, 4% of the total against a season-winner average of 9%. Middle of the pack, almost forgettable, and that is a compliment: he was not scrambling to save pars, because his irons rarely put him in a spot that needed saving.

Then the putter, and here is the number that carries the week. Plus 8.4 strokes on the field, 43% of his total advantage, the largest share of the four categories. And yet it ranked only 2nd of 77. Someone else in that field gained even more on the greens that week and, because Detry won by 7, still finished at least 7 shots behind him. My word. Putting and approach together account for 79% of everything Detry gained. The other two categories were along for the ride.

Then the scoring conversion, the 5th of the Winner's Five. Twenty-eight birdies or better in four rounds. Four bogeys against a field average of 8.4, less than half the damage the average player in that field took. Zero double bogeys or worse, all week. He led after 54 holes, then shot a final round of 65, 4.8 strokes better than the field that day, to close it out.

The winning formula

Mistake-Free Win, the 3rd of the 2025 season. The rule: no double bogey or worse and four or fewer bogeys across 72 holes. This week: 4 bogeys, zero doubles over 72 holes.

Winning-formula ledger for 2025 through this event: Mistake-Free Win 3, Ball-Striking Blueprint 1, Driving Domination 1, Putting-Fueled Win 1.

The database files this as a Mistake-Free Win, the 3rd of the 2025 season: no double bogey or worse and 4 or fewer bogeys across 72 holes. Detry's card was 4 bogeys, 0 doubles, right at the rule's edge. The label has two other members this season so far. Hideki Matsuyama's win at The Sentry: 2 bogeys, 0 doubles, led after 54. Sepp Straka's win at The American Express: 2 bogeys, 0 doubles, led after 54. Same shape on the scorecard, even though Detry's strokes gained were spread differently underneath it.

The archetype is a scorecard-shape label, not a where-the-strokes-came-from label, and that distinction matters here. Detry's 43% putting share was actually larger than the share that earned Harris English the season's Putting-Fueled Win label at the Farmers a few weeks earlier. English's putting share was 55%, but his raw total on the greens was 6.04 strokes, smaller than Detry's 8.4. Shares and totals are not the same measurement, and this week is a clean example of why both numbers matter.

What this week added to the season

Across the 5 2025 winners before this one (5 with a strokes-gained record; the averages use those 5): average winning margin 1.6 strokes, average bogeys 4.2, average shares of advantage off the tee 15%, approach 39%, around the green 9%, putting 37%. This winner: margin 7, bogeys 4.

Across the 5 2025 winners before him with a strokes-gained record, winners averaged a margin of 1.6 strokes and 4.2. bogeys Detry won by 7, more than 4 times the typical gap, while his 4 bogeys sat right at that season average. The gap did not come from managing mistakes better than the season's other winners already had. It came from the two categories where he ranked 1st and 2nd.

Detry's 4-day putting total was the biggest by any winner to that point in the 2025 season. It did not stay the biggest. By year's end 5 more winners had topped it: Straka at 8.66, Lee at 8.71, Scheffler at 8.52, Young at 10.33, and Spaun at 10.52. The only other season for this course in the database is 2026, when Chris Gotterup won at 16 under, margin 0, after sitting 11th at 54 holes: off the tee +4.0 (30%), approach +4.8 (36%), short game +4.5 (34%), putting -0.6 (0%), a Final-Round Takeover. Two winners at the same course, two years apart, told almost opposite putting stories. That is two data points at one golf course, not a verdict on how it plays.

The Data Action angle

From the couch, the only obvious number was the margin: 7 shots of daylight, easy to see on any leaderboard. What is harder to see live is that the gap came from two categories working together, not a hot week with the putter riding along on an ordinary tee-to-green performance. Detry's irons were the best in the entire field. His putter finished 2nd-best. Neither number tells the whole story alone.

It is also easy to misread the approach share by itself. At 36%, it sits a hair under the 39% this season's winners have averaged with their irons, and a reader skimming percentages could conclude his approach play was slightly below the year's typical winning share. It was not. It was the best approach week anyone in the field played. The share reads low only because the putting number next to it was even bigger. Shares describe the shape of a week. They do not describe its size, and you need both to read a scorecard honestly.

What the record can tell you: he produced 43% of his measured advantage on the greens, he led the field in approach play, and he made 4 bogeys against a field average of 8.4. What it cannot tell you is why he won, or that avoiding bogeys is what caused the 7-stroke margin. The strokes-gained record shows where the advantage came from and how much of it there was. It does not read minds, and it does not hand out credit beyond the categories themselves.

The amateur translation

What did the professional actually do? Strip it down and it comes down to this: he gained more with his irons than anyone else in the field, and that bought him putts he could actually make. He hit it close, then he holed what close gives you, and his short game barely had to work, because his approach play rarely left him a hard shot to save.

The scoring principle underneath that week: manageable next shots mean fewer recovery shots, and the quality of the putt you face is decided mostly by the shot before it. Hit the green closer, and an ordinary day with the putter starts paying off in birdies and clean two-putts. Miss it, and you are asking your putter to fix a problem your irons created.

What is your version of that? If you play to a 5, you are probably already hitting most greens, so your version of this is which part of the green you are hitting. Aim for the tier the pin sits on, not just the green itself, because three-putts live in the misses to the wrong tier, not in your stroke. At a 15, this is not about making more putts. It is about not wasting the greens you already hit: get your first putt inside a comfortable range from lag distance and walk off with the par. For a 25, hear this kindly: two putts from well off the pin is not a failure, it is the job done. Getting the ball on the green in a spot where two putts is realistic, and then actually taking the two, is the same principle the champion used, just further from the hole.

One practical action. For your next three rounds, on every green, write down two numbers: how far your first putt was, and how many putts it took you to finish the hole. Do not change anything yet, just look. Somewhere in that list is a distance where your three-putts pile up, and that is exactly the split Data Action Golf's putting numbers are built to show you, lag range against pressure range, so you can see which one is actually costing you strokes. If the read itself is the mystery, Putting IQ walks through the physics of what the ball does on a slope, not just what it feels like it should do.

Three findings

1. Putting produced the largest share, but approach set the table. Detry gained 8.4 strokes on the greens, 43% of his total advantage, 2nd-best in the field. Paired with the best approach week anyone in that field played, the two categories accounted for 79% of everything he gained.
2. Mistake avoidance was the half the leaderboard hides of the formula. Four bogeys and 0 doubles against a field average of 8.4 bogeys marks the 3rd time this season that half of the formula has carried a winner to the trophy.
3. He led after 54 holes and shot 65 on Sunday. What was in his head that day is not something the record shows. What it shows is a final round 4.8 strokes better than the field, one more day of hitting it close and holing it, with the best approach week in the field sitting underneath the whole way.

If there is one thing to take from this week, it is the putt that started with the shot before it.

How to read these numbers

Strokes gained figures are Data Golf's, summed over the winner's four rounds and stated against the field's average for each round, so a positive number is strokes better than the field. Field ranks compare the 77 players who completed all four rounds. "Share of advantage" is the Data Action Golf reading: a category's strokes gained as a percentage of the winner's total across the categories where he beat the field. The 2025 winner average share is the mean of that figure across the season's earlier winners with a strokes-gained record, so it moves as the season goes on. The winning-formula label is assigned by fixed rules checked in a set order; the first rule that fits wins, and the labels describe how one week's advantage was distributed, nothing more. These numbers describe this tournament. They do not predict the next one. Full method: how Data Action Golf reads a winner and what strokes gained measures.