Thomas Detry served as an unfortunate reminder that pros are human after all when he suffered a nightmare six-putt during the second round of the Cognizant Classic.
The Belgian has enjoyed a solid start to his PGA Tour year, recording a top-20 finish at the Farmers Insurance Open followed by an impressive T4 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
However, his finest golf deserted him in Florida on Friday when he arrived on the sixth green at PGA National.
Having lagged his first putt from about 50 feet to six feet, disaster soon struck. Having rolled his par putt past the hole, Detry attempted to tap in for a bogey on one leg but that, too, evaded the cup.
It gets worse, though. From just 15 inches, the 31-year-old saw his lacklustre effort lip out and roll three feet by. Another putt passed by the whole as his despairing playing partner Stephen Jaeger watched on before Detry finally tapped in for a quadruple-bogey eight.
Six putts on the sixth hole: After lagging his first putt to 6 feet, Thomas Detry took five more swipes. pic.twitter.com/WDcsIdcJy3March 1, 2024
"Is this a concentration issue? A four-over-par-late-on-a-Friday issue?" a stunned Steve Sands said on the broadcast.
“That’s not concentration,” putting expert and TV analyst Brad Faxon replied. “That’s a get-me-out-of-here.”
Detry's woes on the green unsurprisingly set records tumbling. Per Justin Ray, the six-putt was the most putts by any player on a single hole since this tournament moved to PGA National.
It also marked the most by any player on a single hole on Tour since Danny Lee 6-putted the 18th in round 3 of the 2020 U.S. Open. The World No. 70 also ended the round with -4.692 strokes gained on the green, the worst of any player for Friday's action.
Thomas Detry had a 6-putt on the 6th hole today at PGA National.It's the most putts by any player on a single hole since this tournament moved to PGA National and the most by any player on a single hole on Tour since Danny Lee 6-putted the 18th in round 3 of the 2020 U.S. Open.March 1, 2024
Following his quadruple bogey, Detry went on to bogey his next two holes, before a double bogey on 14 and a closing bogey on 18 saw him card a nine-over-par round of 80 to sit bottom of the leaderboard.
At the other end of the leaderboard, returning Bud Cauley sets the pace after a fine six-under-par round. The American sits on -11, with Austin Eckroat and Garrick Higo one back on -10. Kevin Yu and Victor Perez round out the top five at -9.
