Thomas Detry will battle it out with Jon Rahm for the LIV Golf Hong Kong title on Sunday, but he might not even have been in that position without the Spaniard’s help.
Detry was one of seven players Rahm sent a plane to Oman to rescue after they were left stranded in Dubai by the US and Israel’s war on Iran.
Now the pair, along with Harold Varner III, are tied on 17 under at the top of the leaderboard, two shots clear of Carlos Ortiz, Dean Burmester and Thomas Pieters.
“The way I see it, is it was simply my duty,” Rahm said. “I was raised with certain values, and if you have the ability and the capability of helping somebody, especially in a scenario like that, where my main focus essentially was getting them out of there, not necessarily playing a tournament.”
Rahm’s Legion XIII teammates Caleb Surratt and Tom McKibbin were also in the group, and he admitted it had looked “kind of dark for a second”.
Caleb Surratt recovered after a bad first round to post a 65 on Saturday. Photo: Elson Li
The Ryder Cup star said he told the 22-year-old Surratt to “forget that we’re playing the tournament” while the focus was on getting them all to safety.