One missed cut at the PGA Championship and no appearance at Augusta. For all the consistency Thomas Detry has shown on LIV in 2026, his major season has been a near-blank so far. Entering Valderrama in second place, he made a surprising confession when asked how he felt coming into this week.

“I feel like the last couple of weeks I’ve been beaten up on that side of things,” Detry said ahead of LIV Golf Andalucía, whose purse is $30 million. “I missed out on the top-60 cutoff by pretty much nothing, and then I had to have a half decent week at the PGA, ended up missing the cut by one. Then I flew back to England, played a qualifier, played 36 holes, thought I qualified, and I ended up losing in a playoff. I’ve given up on that and I’m just focusing on having a good week this week.”

Detry missed the cut at the PGA Championship 2026 and did not play at the Masters in 2026. At the U.S. Open, his most recent appearance in 2024 was a T14 finish, and in 2021, he was T49. The 2026 edition tees off on June 18 at Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, New York, and Detry is not yet in the field.

His Open Championship record tells a similar story of a player capable of competing at that level. He was T13 at Royal Liverpool in 2023, T34 at St Andrews in 2022, T45 at Royal Portrush in 2025, and missed the cut at Royal St. George’s in 2021. The results at majors are not the issue. Access to them is.

Players enter the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in July via automatic exemption or the Open Qualifying Series. Being ranked in the top 50 in the world, in the top 25 of the Race to Dubai, or winning a recent major tournament is a key route to the Masters. Detry, however, owned none.

What adds weight to his words is the LIV points situation. Detry has been consistent on tour this season, with seven top-10 finishes in his last 11 events, yet the world ranking points LIV events offer are limited, making it genuinely hard to stay inside the top 60. His 2026 season shows the range, though. He came T2 in Hong Kong, T3 in South Africa, T5 in Mexico City, T6 in Virginia, and is now sitting second through three rounds in Andalucia at eight under.

Well, this isn’t the first time the golfer has shown how comfortable he has become with the league. Earlier this year, he spoke about how the LIV environment has actually helped him cope with that pressure. Yet Detry’s frustration masks a deeper truth about LIV culture.

“We travel together. We have dinners together. We do breakfast together,” he said. “It’s really nice, and it gives you a little bit of comfort because we’re technically all in the same boat. We’re all under pressure, and we’re all going through the motions.”

While Detry waits, several LIV peers have already secured their spots.

LIV Golf players who made it to Shinnecock Hills

Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, and Dustin Johnson have qualified on past champion exemptions—winning the U.S. Open in 2024, 2021, and 2016, respectively. Cameron Smith joins them through his 2022 Open Championship title.

Joaquin Niemann made it through the 2025 LIV individual standings. Meanwhile, Lucas Herbert secured a top-three finish in the 2026 LIV standings, showing that the circuit was open to him.

Tyrrell Hatton and Carlos Ortiz earned their spots with top-5 finishes at the 2025 U.S. Open. Laurie Canter was another to come through the 2025 DP World Tour Race to Dubai standings, a very different route from his LIV counterparts.

Graeme McDowell, Peter Uihlein, and Caleb Surratt progressed through final qualifying in Dallas.