SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Imagine you spend five years in the golf wilderness in England, playing on a third-tier tour and worrying about how you are going to pay your taxes, let alone make a living. You’ve won on the DP World Tour, but that was years before, and now you have no idea if you will ever make it back and you have no idea what you would do instead.
So you keep grinding. And hoping. And eventually you find your way back up the ranks until, at age 39, you reach the PGA Tour, and you arrive at the WM Phoenix Open—not just another tournament, but golf in a different world. You are overwhelmed by the noise and the crowds and the raucous atmosphere on the famed par-3 16th hole encircled in its own arena. No one would fault you if you forgot what got you here, if it was all just a bit too much.
But John Parry didn’t forget what got him here. Maybe he just needed a place where he could show off.
Playing in just his 12th PGA Tour event and his eighth in America, Parry isn’t a name many people would recognize on the leaderboard in the Phoenix Open. He wouldn’t be all that recognized anywhere. But the rookie from Harrogate, England, has stepped up this week to prove he has some game—the game that made him a winner in 2010 on the DP World Tour before he fell off the radar. Thanks to a five-under 66 Friday at TPC Scottsdale, Parry is firmly in contention at seven-under 135.
Where he has excelled is the most unlikely of places. Two days in a row he has birdied holes 13-16. This is where the noise increases until it reaches a crescendo at 16.
“It’s different [on the PGA Tour] because, obviously, the crowds … we get maybe six events, not like this, but last week [at Torrey Pines] maybe, Wentworth and the Irish Open and a few others, so you’re slightly used to it,” he explained. “But it’s so constant over here. Every week is massive crowds. But I’ve just continued doing what I’ve done for the last sort of two years. I’m not changing anything.”
Indeed, there is nothing like the cacophony surrounding the 16th hole. In his introduction on Thursday, his tee shot settled seven feet from the cup. Made it. On Friday from 167 yards, he stuffed it to five feet. Made that, too.
Culture shock? Not for this bloke.
“It’s phenomenal,” said Parry, who earned his tour card for this season by finishing fifth in the DP World Tour, one of 10 players not otherwise exempt who get to play in America. “Two days in a row, yeah, as well. It’s been a good hole for me. Yeah, spectacular hole. It’s one you got to just accept what it is and just try and enjoy it. Half of them … well, I know they’re enjoying themself, but I think they’re enjoying the beer a bit more than the golf. You just got to accept that’s what they’re there for. It’s great.”
Parry finally reached golf’s pinnacle among the world tours after finally climbing out of the quiet vacuum of the Clutch Pro Tour, the minor tour based in England that feeds into the Challenge Tour, which is one rung below the DP World Tour. He won three times on the Challenge Tour in 2024 and then returned to the winner’s circle on the DP World Tour in 2025 with his second victory at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritas Open, ending a drought of 14 years. He also had a pair of runner-up finishes and two thirds.
Though he has struggled a bit in his early run of PGA Tour starts this year, with a best finish of T-19 at the Sony Open in Hawaii, Parry is heartened by the fact that he has yet to miss a cut—following three made cuts in the three early-season DP World Tour starts.
“I’ve actually been a little bit disappointed the way I’ve played the last few weeks for me,” Parry said. “I don’t know if it’s like the courses and you get penalized more. Obviously, last week you got penalized if you hit a bad shot, but I’m pleased that … when I’m not quite on it, I’m still making cuts, so that’s a positive.”
He’s a bit more on it this week after tweaking his driver. He’s still losing more than a stroke off the tee against the field, but he has given himself good looks and has taken advantage, leading the field in putting.
“That’s gave me a little bit more confidence,” he said of the driver adjustment. “And a bit of it’s me as well. But just I think round here you’ve got to hit fairways to give yourself chances, and I’m holing my fair share of putts at the minute.”
It remains to be seen if he can keep it up. He seems to be reveling amidst golf’s most chaotic milieu. After trudging through golf’s wilderness, the loud cheers and beer-fueled groans have to sound like a symphony.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
