'I'm all in on my PGA Tour adventure': Veteran Yorkshire golfer John Parry determined to seize opportunity of a lifetime
John Parry has declared himself ‘all in’ on his American adventure as he continues to ride the wave of his career resurgence.
Three years after playing one-day shootouts on the 2020protour and two years after being laid up with a slipped disc, the recently-turned 39-year-old pro from Harrogate is planning for the season of a lifetime on the lucrative PGA Tour.
At a time in life when most professional sporting careers are ending Parry’s is peaking and he is determined to seize every moment.
After a sudden burst of three wins on the Challenge Tour last summer, Parry earned promotion back to the DP World Tour and rode that momentum to a second career win in Mauritius last December and five more top-five finishes plus a tie for 16th at the Open.
It meant he finished 11th on the Race to Dubai standings, claiming one of the 10 cards on the PGA Tour for those not already exempt.
So instead of plotting travel to tournaments in the Middle East and Europe from his North Yorkshire home over the coming months, Parry will base himself near the iconic Sawgrass in Florida for tournaments in the States. And there’ll be no half measures either.
“I’m all in,” he told The Yorkshire Post. “I’m not going to jump between tours, I’m going to do it as well as I can, prepare as well as I can.
“The (PGA Tour) schedule is a little stop-start if you’re not in the signature events, which I won’t be, so then you end up thinking should I come back and play a few on the DP World Tour. But then if I start doing that I’d risk over-doing it, especially with the travel. So I won’t.
“I think I’ve just got to say ‘right, I’m playing the PGA Tour, that’s what I’m going to do’. I can come back to the DP World Tour as a worst-case scenario. Someone has said that even if you lose your card on the PGA Tour, I’d still have a status on the DP World Tour that would get me into most tournaments.
“So that makes this opportunity in America a free hit for me - and I’m going to go for it. It’s going to be fantastic, some of the courses I’ll get to play are amazing.”
His American odyssey begins in Hawaii in January and in that first month alone takes in some of the most famous courses on the West Coast of America, like La Quinta and Torrey Pines.
Play well and he will unlock more opportunities in the signature events such as the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am or the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. Next stop after that is the majors.
Play poorly and he won’t panic or throw the baby out with the bath water. It is a philosophy that has served him well in the autumn of his career.
“What I’ve accomplished the last couple of years, if I was to stop and think about it, is remarkable,” says Parry, who has prioritised repetition of key areas rather than multiple tweaks to improve his game the past two seasons.
“My plan is not to do what I’ve done in the past where if I’ve had a bad few weeks I’m trying to change things and overthink it.
“Whatever I have done to get to this point, keep doing it, and if it’s not good enough then it’s not good enough. Touch wood, I think I’ll do alright.”
It was around early summer when he started taking note of the Race to Dubai standings and realised he had a chance of claiming a ticket to the PGA Tour. Third-place at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championships in early October all-but sealed his place.
“The good thing about this season was how consistent I was,” says Parry, who ends the year with two tournaments in South Africa and a title defence in Mauritius - which could be the only three tournaments he plays on the DP World Tour 2026 schedule.
“The big thing was playing the big events and competing, knowing that you’re not miles off and if you put a good week together you’ve got half a sniff. Sometimes you can have a good year then it comes to the bigger events and you’re miles off and that can put a bit of a dampener on things. But I feel a lot more comfortable among the bigger names now.”
The initial plan is to base himself out in Florida but not commit to a rental property at first, just find an AirBnB near Sawgrass.
“I think age helps,” says the world No 94 when asked if he is better equipped to succeed at this stage of his life.
“Don’t get me wrong, I wish I was 22 doing it and I wish I could have gone back when I first played on tour and know the things I know now, because I would have had a longer career at doing well.
“But I think it makes me more logical about the next step. I’ve played a few times over in America so nothing is going to be a shock. I’m as prepared for it as I can be.”