Ex-UCI Golfer Perry Parker Brings His Passport to Pebble Beach

Perry Parker got his first taste of big-time golf this winter as he strode up the 18th fairway of the Palm Meadows Country Club in Surfers’ Paradise, Australia, alongside hometown favorite Ian Baker-Finch.

He found it to be quite palatable.

Thousands of spectators lined the fairway or sat in the tiered grandstand bowl surrounding the 18th green for the final day of the $1.4-million Palm Meadows Cup, Australia’s richest tournament. An ovation erupted at the first glimpse of Baker-Finch.

Minutes later, however, the noisy adoration for a favorite son had turned into an uproar of admiration for an obscure American.

Parker had hit a huge drive, cutting the corner over a creek, leaving himself a six-iron second shot on the par-five 18th. He dropped the approach 20 feet from the cup, rolled in an uphill putt for an eagle and finished with a 69.

“Being paired with Baker-Finch, there was a huge gallery following us and I was really nervous on the first tee,” Parker said. “But I got off to a good start and played really well. I had only one bogey and finished with birdies on 14 and 15 and pars on 16 and 17.

“When I made the eagle putt on 18, the gallery went wild. It was quite a thrill. I got a huge ovation.”

He also got the biggest paycheck of his professional career, $28,000 Australian. After Australian taxes and conversion to U.S. dollars, it turned out to be about $16,000 take-home.

Parker, a former UC Irvine and Foothill High School golfer, looks at that experience the way someone who hasn’t eaten all day regards an appetizer before dinner: Delicious, but it only seems to make you hungrier.

Parker, who lives in Dana Point when he’s not in Australia or Hong Kong or Edmonton, does make a living playing golf. He’s not exactly wallowing in his winnings, though. He has been among the top five money winners on the Canadian Tour, and among the top 30 on both the Australian and Asian tours with only limited participation, but he’s not running around searching for tax shelters or even investment opportunities.

Which is to say he hasn’t earned a PGA card yet.

David Edwards picked up $234,000 for winning the Memorial last week. The four guys tied for 14th won $22,100. The same day, Parker won the British Columbia Open in Vancouver--and $18,000.

The next day, however, he took an even bigger step toward a financially secure future.

In a one-day, 36-hole U.S. Open sectional qualifying tournament at Lake Merced Country Club in Daly City, Parker shot a 70 and then rebounded from a front-nine 41 to shoot 36 on the back for a 147 total. He tied with five others for fifth place and was among the top 10 who advance to the U.S. Open.

So Thursday, he will tee it up at Pebble Beach with the best golfers in the world for the first round of one of the world’s most prestigious golf tournaments

Now, if he can just string together a few of those 69s. . .

The first time UC Irvine Coach Steve Ainslie saw Parker, he thought the Foothill sophomore looked like Arlo Guthrie. “A skinny little kid with very big hair,” Ainslie recalls. “He couldn’t have weighed more than 140 pounds, but he had this Afro that wouldn’t quit.”

Parker says the hairdo was a reflection of the fact he thought his sporting future was in basketball, not golf. By the time he graduated, he had grown to 6-feet-1 and filled out a little, but there were no scholarship offers for golf . . . or basketball, for that matter.

So he walked on at Irvine, starting a family tradition. His brothers, Stacy and Corey, both played baseball for the Anteaters. Stacy was recently released from the Chicago White Sox organization and Corey was selected by Detroit in this month’s draft and recently signed with the Tigers.

By his junior year, Parker had become No. 1 on the team and captain. He led the Anteaters in scoring average in his junior and senior seasons.

“Only because he worked his butt off, though,” Ainslie said. “He’s not the most talented golfer I’ve had here in 13 years, but he was the hardest worker. First guy to practice, last to leave, you know. If I had 12 Perry Parkers every year, my life would be a breeze.”

Parker’s work ethic has continued to pay dividends as he has made a steady-if-unspectacular rise through the ranks of professional golf.

He turned pro in 1987, played on the Golden State Tour for two years and won six tournaments. He made his first venture into Canada in 1990 and finished 28th on the money list. Last year, he won the Willows Classic in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and went on to finish fifth on the money list, which gave him automatic exemptions to all events on the Canadian, Australian and Asian circuits.

Three years ago, however, he was ready to call it quits. The golf was going good; his marriage wasn’t.

“The first year of our marriage was really tough because Lori was staying home and working,” Parker said. “She was pretty miserable. I’d be calling and talking about all the great places I was going to and she was home working.

“We were kind of growing apart and that’s when we decided we’d have to scrimp and pay off our bills so she could travel with me. Then I started playing better and it’s been a lot nicer.”

Lori, who worked for a Costa Mesa public relations firm, says she doesn’t mind living out of a suitcase, pointing out that there are “no dishes to do and no beds to make” on the road.

“I miss my family, but it’s been fun,” she said. “Who could complain about the beaches in Australia or shopping in Hong Kong?”

Lori says she is earning her keep in two ways: moral support and caddying. The latter is only an occasional chore, however, and she insists Perry brings only his mid-size bag. She doesn’t have to do windows and she doesn’t tote the big tour bag.

The globe-hopping has been an education for both Parkers, off and on the golf course.

“The strangest place I’ve played is Calcutta, India,” Parker said. “People bathe and do their laundry in the lakes on the course. There are goats and cows and water buffalo roaming around and the crowds were huge--5,000 to 10,000, the papers said.

“I gave my caddie $200 and supposedly that was double his yearly salary.”

Parker could double his own yearly salary this week. And he feels good about his chances of playing well in the Open. For reasons only very good golfers can understand, Parker likes playing at Pebble Beach. And it has nothing to do with the scenery.

He actually scores well there.

“I’m really pumped up because I have a lot of great memories of Pebble Beach,” he said, “They’re mainly from the California State Amateur in 1987, when I made it to the semifinals before losing to Mike Springer, who’s now on the (PGA) tour.

“In the first round, I was playing a match against a good friend of mine, John O’Neil, who’s now a pro at PGA West. I was two down with three holes to play and birdied 16, 17 and 18 at Pebble Beach to win.

“I think how I played there that week was the point in my career that I realized, ‘Hey, I can play this game at a higher level.’ ”

The U.S. Open is certainly the kind of high-level platform from which a guy could make a big splash. So Parker is praying for some really bad conditions. Gusty winds and fast greens would be just fine, thanks.

“I’ve played a lot of golf there and I’ve always played well,” he said. “I’m not sure why except that I play well in the wind because I hit the ball low, especially off the tee. And I’m a good putter and the greens are tricky there.

“Putting’s my strength and if it’s real windy, you’re going to miss a lot of greens, so you have to be able to get up and down. Your short game really shows up in those conditions.”

Unsavory weather and difficult golf courses also can test a golfer’s poise, concentration and nerves. And that, Ainslie said, is another factor in Parker’s favor.

“Perry’s what we call a grinder,” Ainslie said. “The way he qualified for the Open is a perfect example of his character. Golf has a way of establishing your character real quick. There are a whole lot of guys who would have shot that 41 and said, ‘It’s just not my day,’ and went in the tank.”

Lori Parker isn’t sure how her husband managed to keep his composure. She had trouble maintaining hers and she was only watching.

“Qualifying for the Open is so stressful, anyway,” she said, “and he played so well on the first round and then to see it slipping away like that, it was brutal. It was very tough. But Perry never gave up.”

Parker, 27, hasn’t given up his quest for making the big time. In fact, he feels he’s so close he can almost taste it.

So he will attempt to earn his way onto the PGA tour in the qualifying school this year. Talk about stressful rounds of golf.

“It’s tough because all of us have been gearing our whole year toward making the PGA Tour,” he said. “During the first stage of the qualifying school, you play four rounds and if you don’t play too well those four rounds, you’re put back a whole year.

“My feeling is that if you’ve reached the level of playing consistently well enough where you would have success on the PGA Tour, you should be able to shoot the scores to get through the school. But you really have to be in control of your emotions and I think I’ll be more relaxed because I’m now exempt (on the Canadian, Australian and Asian circuits). It’s not life or death, I have other options.”

For Lori, that means shopping in Hong Kong and sun-bathing on Australia’s Gold Coast.

For Perry, it means trying to avoid the laundry hazard on No. 9 in Calcutta.