Parry breaks through for first win on US Tour

BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2002 NEC Invitational | Wrap | 26 Aug 2002

Craig Parry has shown over many years that once he gets in the lead he is an extremely tough man to dislodge. It is almost as if he gets into a zone of mistake free golf, playing the percentages.

Even as far back as his very first win at the 1987 NSW Open, he showed that this would be a feature of his game when he held off a more credentialled field to win at the Australian Golf Club. Many of his eighteen wins since have come as a result of adopting percentage based mistake free golf once in, or near, the lead and let the others make the mistakes.

The shape to his shots, a gentle fade, allows him the luxury of pin point control and even though several of the holes down the stretch at Sahalee were more suited to someone who moves the ball the other way, such was the standard of his game this week that he appeared to have it on a string.

As was the case last year, Parry came into the second half of the season with an ordinary series of events behind him on the USPGA Tour. He had missed seven of his last nine cuts leading into this week and so most could be forgiven for thinking that he was hardly likely to be the leading Australian, let alone the NEC Champion. Last year he arrived in Las Vegas late in the year in dire straits, in terms of retaining his card, having missed several consecutive cuts. There he was in contention virtually throughout and, despite that ordinary lead-in form, was able to hold on for seventh and earn enough to consolidate his spot and his tour card.

Despite the fact that he is a tough, and at times, uncompromising character on the golf course, it was clear that this was a victory that not only earned him his first win in the US but will go some way to exorcising the demons of the 1992 US Masters where he had led narrowly into round four over Fred Couples. There, the relatively inexperienced Parry (it was only his second time at Augusta) , had let a partisan crowd get the better of him and his chance to win disappeared in a last round of 78. Given that opportunity again, there is every reason to believe that the Parry of today has the game and mental capacity to block most things out as he focuses on finish lines.

Parry had won in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Europe, Canada and Asia before this week and although four times second in his ten year career in the US had not managed to kick the goal he so desperately wanted.

This will be a great source of satisfaction, inspiration and confidence to Parry who had the added joy of involving his brother Glen in the win as his caddy. Glen had quit a job in Perth to take up the role as his brother’s bag carrier earlier this year and the way things had been shaping up prior to this week it may well have been a partnership of limited duration. One gets the feeling now however, that they may prove an increasingly successful combination.

Parry never looked in any serious danger of defeat, despite the ever present Woods within striking distance should he falter at all. He had opened with three quick birdies and was out in four under par 31. His fellow countryman Robert Allenby made a move early in his round but was brought undone by a costly double-bogey at the 12th when in a position to apply a little pressure to Parry. To his credit, however, Allenby fought back from the double bogey to birdie the last four holes and tie for second with the very much in-form Fred Funk. They (Allenby and Funk) both received a cheque for $US410,000. Woods was alone in fourth failing in his bid to win this event for the fourth consecutive year but giving it a very good shot once again.

Michael Campbell was 11th, Peter Lonard was nineteenth with a last round 67, Stuart Appleby and Craig Perks 42nd, Greg Norman 55th and Steve Elkington 68th.

For Parry the tag of being the most successful non-winnning golfer in the US has gone forever and may soon be replaced by a tag suggesting that he is one of the best players yet to win a major. I think I know which one Craig prefers.