LIV’s Thomas Detry shares the realities of going from a war zone to a tournament.

LIV Golf’s Thomas Detry is among the many professional athletes around the world who did not know what their immediate future would hold after the US and Israel attacked Iran last weekend.

Detri, a Belgian native who played four years at Illinois State, has made his home in Dubai. The United Arab Emirates airspace was closed for a while due to the U.S. airstrike.

He had to catch a flight to Hong Kong before LIV’s third event of the season began at Hong Kong Golf Club on Thursday. As airspace reopened, Golf.com reported Tuesday that Spanish LIV star Jon Rahm arranged for a private jet to fly seven LIV players, including Detri, and a caddie from the Omani nation to Hong Kong.

“When I got to the UAE border two days ago, I thought, ‘There’s no chance of me teeing it up here in Hong Kong,’ but then I got on the plane here and it was unbelievable,” Detri said. “Obviously it’s made it a lot easier for us because I don’t think we would have been able to get here otherwise.

“It took about 48 hours. I spent a lot of time sitting in the chair, and it wasn’t a very comfortable chair. So I was worried about my body, but everything seemed to be responding pretty well.”

In fact, Detry began the tournament tied for seventh with a 6-under 64, four strokes behind the lead established by Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz.

“It feels really good,” Detri said. “Actually, my concern was that I was not feeling well, I was tired and I was completely out of it. I arrived early (Wednesday) morning so I think I had a chance to recover. I had over 24 hours to recover and did some gym work and looked at my physio and everything.”

“I’ve been on the DP World Tour a few times before, so I knew the place and knew where I was going. I played really good golf and I think I made some good putts. I missed a few short ones, but I hit a few long ones, so I can’t complain. It was a lot of fun out there.”

–Field level media