“He is frazzled! Take a few weeks off, boy” - Eddie Pepperell questions Thomas Detry's PGA Tour schedule post his six-putt nightmare
Eddie Pepperell was one of the many golfers who took note of Thomas Detry's struggle last weekend. The golfer had to putt six times on a hole at the Cognizant Classic, putting himself in rarefied air. It was a shocking struggle that immediately went viral and caught everyone's attention.
That includes Pepperell, who believes that Detry might need to take some time to relax after that one. He said via Golf Magic:
"I thought it was a good 45-second clip actually... a real journey through the mind of a golfer who, strangely enough, has been playing really, really well but for the last few weeks has finished last or thereabouts."
He continued, saying he's not sure why Detry is still competing every weekend on the PGA Tour:
"I don't know why he's playing. He needs a week or two off, that is as clear to me watching that as anything. He is frazzled! Take a few weeks off, boy. You've done well, you don't need to be playing as often as you are. And when you do something like that, that suggests to me that a player has come to the end of his tether."
He did praise Detry's recent form that ultimately took a turn for the worse, and it does seem as if this comes from a place of support. Pepperell didn't enjoy seeing his counterpart struggle so mightily and offered some advice -- take a bit of time to reset.
Pepperell said that Detry doesn't need to play as often as he does, especially when it's largely resulting in last place finishes. He was +11 and missed the cut at the Cognizant, the worst score of anyone there.
He was +5 at the Mexico Open. The last couple of weeks have been pretty awful for Detry, and Pepperell's comments seem to suggest that he feels bad for Detry and wants to see him doing well again.
Prior to those showings, he was -8 at the WM Phoenix Open, so he had been doing well until things fell apart, highlighted by his now infamous putting issues last weekend.
Eddie Pepperell rips LIV Golf
Eddie Pepperell is not the biggest fan of LIV Golf, the rebel tour. He has seen all the recent news, including that Talor Gooch believes a Rory McIlroy Masters win would be asterisked and that Anthony Kim is back.
Pepperell isn't happy with either story. He can't believe that Gooch would say that, and he doesn't believe that Kim is "hated" for his decision to return to golf on Greg Norman's tour. He took to X (formerly Twitter) in an NSFW rant about it.
The golfer said:
"Within two days, one LIV golfer suggests Rory winning the Grand Slam in April should come with an asterisk, and another player, idolised and mythologised by so many, returns to pro golf by joining LIV and remarks that he's somehow 'hated'... Honestly, these f*****g idiots."
It seems as if Pepperell is still a strong supporter of the PGA Tour even as others warm up to LIV.