There were moments when 39‑year‑old PGA TOUR rookie John Parry wondered whether he would ever reach this stage.
His career has rarely followed a straight path, but the persistence that carried him through its twists and setbacks is the same quality now allowing him to settle so naturally into life on the PGA TOUR after an outstanding 2025 season.
In 18 years as a professional, the Englishman has been a three-time Qualifying School graduate, three-time HotelPlanner Tour graduate, four-time HotelPlanner Tour winner and two-time DP World Tour winner.
His victory at last season's AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open - a full 14 years after his maiden DP World Tour win - laid the foundations for a campaign that saw him finish 11th on the Race to Dubai and secure dual membership.
And that is what brought him to the 16th at TPC Scottsdale's Stadium Course last week. The 'Coliseum' is known as the rowdiest hole in golf, but Parry was able to enjoy it after making each of his first three cuts on American soil.
"It was incredible," he tells the DP World Tour on his return to the UK after a run of four straight starts in the US.
"It was nerve-wracking but the hole went well for me last week so I quite enjoyed it.
"When you walk through the tunnel out there it is so good. I wouldn’t want to do it every week but once a year it was fantastic."
It is all a far cry from 2021 when Parry found himself outside the top 1000 on the Official World Golf Ranking and playing on the EuroPro Tour.
After a successful amateur career that saw him play in a Walker Cup team containing Rory McIlroy and Danny Willett that went down to a narrow defeat to a US team containing Rickie Fowler, Billy Horschel, Dustin Johnson and Webb Simpson, Parry turned professional in 2007.
Success would come relatively quickly and in 2009 he graduated from the HotelPlanner Tour, winning the Vivendi Cup in his rookie DP World Tour season, but the next decade would be one of toil as he fought to stay on Tour with those numberous trips to the Qualifying School.
His win at the EuroPro Tour's Cumberwell Park Championship in 2021 was his first for a decade but helped him gain HotelPlanner Tour status alongside fellow 2026 dual member and PGA TOUR rookie Dan Brown.
Parry does not mind admitting it is sometimes hard to believe where he now finds himself.
"I always wanted to play the PGA TOUR," he said. "As I got older it became a thing where you think, ‘am I ever going to be able to do it?’.
"On the PGA TOUR you’re allowed to practise at the TPC courses for free so me and Dan went out a week early and practised at Sawgrass.
"It’s 9am in a morning and I’m driving round the golf course in a buggy, playing the Stadium Course and that’s the sort of time that you pinch yourself. Coming from playing the EuroPro Tour to there is quite a big leap, isn't it?
"There’s little bonuses you get where you think, I didn’t think I'd be experiencing this so I definitely pinch myself sometimes.
"It’s more when you’re not having a good tournament where you have to look back at where you were a few years ago and where you are now."
By 2023 he was back on Tour but he lost his card before a 2024 that would prove life-changing.
On the HotelPlanner Tour he won in India in March, France in June and Italy in September to earn instant promotion before he closed out the calendar year with his victory in Mauritius.
In four of the last five seasons, Parry has managed to earn himself a place on another Tour: from EuroPro to HotelPlanner, twice from HotelPlanner to DP World and now from DP World to PGA.
With change, however, can come doubt, although Parry is banking on using all his experience and knowledge of his own game to navigate this latest chapter.
"There’s an element at the start where you hope you’re good enough," he said.
"When I came back from the HotelPlanner Tour to the DP World Tour a couple of years ago, you always have that question mark.
"But I feel that now I’m in more of a settled position where this is my game, this is how I’m going to practise, and it’s either good enough or not good enough, where before I’d probably start trying to change things.
"I’m not as panicky now, when I was younger it could have been a bit different.
"I’ve probably learned over the years being on the DP World Tour, having bad weeks and thinking I have to change the whole game to get better and it didn’t work for me. I know from past experience I can’t do that."
With his wife still based in the UK, Parry has not set up a base in the States as he takes his first steps on the PGA TOUR.
Some players - Robert MacIntyre and Kiradech Aphibarnrat among them - have been open about struggling to adapt to life so far away from home on a new Tour.
And while Parry admits the PGA TOUR is a very different experience, off the course he is happy to be settling in alongside friend and fellow Yorkshireman Brown.
"In Europe everyone tends to stay at the same place so you’ve always got people to eat and do stuff with," he says. "In the States you get given a car and can stay where you want so you don't really see anyone on an evening. That’s defintiely different.
"My wife isn’t out with me and Dan Brown is out on his own as well. We live near each other and we get on well so that’s been quite handy to have someone to hang out with. If you didn’t have that I feel like you could be stuck on your own.
"Some great golfers have gone over there and it’s not happened for them. Maybe there’s a bit off the course where I’m maybe a bit better than some of the others where I don’t mind being on my own.
"I’m quite happy in my own company. I can just sit and watch TV, that sort of thing doesn’t bother me. My wife came out and I’ve had people pop out so I've found it OK. One of my sponsors is going to come out for a few events and he’s like a mate so I think I’ll be alright."
On the course things are certainly heading in the right direction for Parry.
A top 20 at the Sony Open in Hawaii moved him to a career-high 80th in the world and he followed that with three more made cuts to sit 56th on the FedEx Cup Rankings.
A veteran of 383 ranking professional events, Parry is now a man clearly comfortable with the game that has served him so well, particularly in recent seasons, but that does not mean he is not still looking to learn and, crucially, improve.
If I hit the ball straight and putt well, there’s not a golf course you can’t play. You’ve just got to try and keep it as simple as possible
"What I have noticed out here is you’ve got to be really disciplined with your golf, you can’t always go at every single pin, sometimes you’ve got to play way from pins," he said.
"I played with Viktor Hovland in the last round in Phoenix and I was chatting to him about it and he said that’s probably the difference, sometimes you’ve just got to accept that you’re hitting to 50 foot.
"It was nice to play with someone like that, who is probably one of the best iron players in the world. If he was going at the pin and you were putting it to 50 foot you might be thinking ‘I can’t do that’ but for him to think the same as you and do the same as you makes you feel that you’re somewhere on the right track.
"It’s nice to see them players do similar things and you hope to get better and get closer to them."
He added: "The long game side of it, if you’re hitting it straight, you’re sitting it straight, it doesn’t matter what golf course you’re playing.
"I think the biggest change is more the chipping around the greens. I’ve found that a lot harder. You only need a couple of styles of shot but they’re the things that I think I need to get better at and learn a bit more.
"You’re chipping out of long rough onto firm greens and there’s a lot of run off where the green is at hip or chest height and with them being firm and quick you need to hit like a soft or spinny chip shot.
"If you could pick two shots to be good at round the greens, they would be the two, it just needs more practise and getting used to. That’s what I’m going to work on."
That desire to improve in a season which Parry admits is a "free hit" can only stand him in good stead as he looks to establish himself in the United States.
Considering how far he has come in the last five years, it could be considered an achievement for Parry just to keep his card but the affable Englishman is confident he can do more than just survive if it all comes together.
"It’s making sure I do everything like I did last year," he said. "Prepare the same, practise the same and just be really consistent in that. I’d like to think that will end up with me having good results. That would be my goal. Take care of what I can and then touch wood that ends up working out in my favour at the end of the year.
"At two of the tournaments I don’t think I played very well but I made the cut. In Phoenix, the last round didn’t go very well but I felt like it was the first time that I felt I could win out here. It felt like I can do something good if I have a good week which is always a nice feeling.
"I didn’t feel like I played great and I’m in 50th and this is all I’ve got, I felt like I can still do better than this. I felt my game was somewhere nearby having a chance at winning an event which is good for your confidence.
"Having a couple of good low rounds has made me feel in place. Getting myself into those top tens – although I know I haven’t finished there yet – I can shoot good rounds, I can get myself into contention.
"I did it in Hawaii but it was one tournament. To do it in two of the first four tournaments makes me feel like I can do it more often. It makes me a feel a lot more comfortable in the situation for sure.
"If I missed a cut now, I wouldn’t panic, I’ve made four cuts and I don’t feel like I’ve had my A game.
"I’ve had rounds where I’ve had my A game but I’ve not put it together for four days. I feel I have the potential to do that and I don’t feel out of my depth. There’s aspects I need to get better at but I don’t feel out of my depth at all, it’s a nice position to be in."
Parry's American adventure now takes a short break as the PGA TOUR has back-to-back Signature Events for which he is not currently eligible. But that may not be the case for long.
"You’ve got try and enjoy it which I think I will and you’ve got to not over-hype it," he concludes. "Even though it’s sometimes tough to do you’ve just got to be, it’s a game of golf, if I hit the ball straight and putt well, there’s not a golf course you can’t play. You’ve just got to try and keep it as simple as possible."
So far so good.
