– John Parry (-14) has won the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open after carding a 64 in the final round, eight under par for the day, a score that left little room for manoeuvre for the contenders coming in the last matches on Sunday. The 38-year-old Englishman wins again on the DP World Tour fourteen years and three months after securing what was until now his only victory on this tour (Vivendi Cup, September 2010). Back then, he was a 24-year-old with an aggressive and brave playing style, probably dreaming of reaching the highest peaks of world golf. He certainly had the talent, and after all, he had hit the ground running, winning in his debut year on the European circuit.
In these more than fourteen years between victories, there have been ups and downs in this player’s career. Perhaps, in his case, more downs than ups, if we consider the expectations he raised in that rookie year. From 2010 onwards, nothing would go as it seemingly should have, leading to a bleak 2014, in which he missed 23 cuts in 29 tournaments… In 2015, he did take a small breather, but in 2016 and 2017, he reverted to his old ways, struggling immensely to make just a handful of cuts; in 2018, he hit rock bottom and even seriously considered the liberating option of leaving high-level competitive golf. However, he still managed to find some motivation, and in 2019, he attempted to rehabilitate himself through the PGA EuroPro Tour, a satellite tour (now defunct, by the way) of the third division of continental golf.
We jump to 16 June 2021. On that day, John Parry appeared at the Cumberwell Park Championship, a tournament on the aforementioned EuroPro Tour, as World Number 1,435. He had sunk to such depths after a 2020, the pandemic year, in which he hadn’t played a single tournament. But he won that Cumberwell Park Championship. Almost eleven years after that stellar victory on the European circuit, he won again. And that victory proved crucial for finishing the season in fifth place in the ranking of that tour, thus barely securing a spot in the Challenge Tour, although he would still enter the final event of the year, the Final, with mathematical chances of missing out on those top five spots.
Since then, despite some ups and downs, Parry at least knew he was back, perhaps a bit more seasoned, prudent, and keeping his dreams grounded. Thus, he completed an extraordinary 2024 season on the Challenge Tour, including three victories.
– Parry today at Mont Choisy Le Golf in Mauritius, on another windy day, executed the perfect manual of ‘how to steal everyone’s thunder on a Sunday in the last seven holes’. On the 12th tee, let’s be honest, his chances of victory were almost negligible. But on that hole, a par 5, he holed out for eagle from about forty metres… And on the next hole, the 13th, he sank a delicate birdie putt from about five metres. And on the 14th, a par 5, he set up an excellent eagle opportunity, although it ended in a birdie. And on the 17th, a par 3, the most challenging hole on the course this Sunday, he hit the shot of the day, leaving the ball just over a metre from the cup. He didn’t make the birdie, true, and it surely stung, but at this stage, a stress-free par was more than good. Finally, he finished with another birdie putt from about five metres on the 18th. Six under par in the last seven holes and a decisive statement in the tournament. As said: this is how, brilliance after brilliance, you steal the show on a Sunday. Parry, at last, was ready to align the planets again.
– The story is instructive, as there are hundreds of extraordinary golfers who tread the grey path that Parry walked. The Englishman will be around World Number 100 next week, a level he had never reached, but he came close to quitting, crushed by frustration. Here he is again, at 38, with a swing and a putter blazing with pure confidence. If there’s one good thing about this sport, in the realm of high competition, it’s that it might never be too late. These guys, from time to time, remind us of that.
