With the PGA tour in full swing and the Ryder Cup around the corner, the likes of Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland and Scottie Sheffler are prime time viewing.
But Knaresborough has its own claim to fame when it comes to golfers on the world stage.
John Parry picked up his first club when he was six years old.
The 36-year-old spent most of his early career training at Harrogate Golf Club, where he cut his teeth as a teenager, before going onto to compete around the globe.
These days, John competes on the professional tours and finished joint fourth at the World Invitational 2023 in Northern Ireland last weekend.
We sat down with him at Knaresborough Golf Club on a morning fit for a tee-off on the first hole to find out how his uncle helped him pick up a set of clubs as a boy and how he went on to line up alongside Tiger Woods some three decades later.
Picking up the clubs
It was in Birmingham where John first set eyes on a golf ball and clubs.
Just six years old, his uncle introduced him to the sport as something to do with his brothers.
“He just got us a lesson and we played a little bit. Then we moved back up to Harrogate from Birmingham.
“We just sort of took it from there and played on par three courses. Then we eventually joined Harrogate Golf Club.”
John grew up in Knaresborough and attended King James’s School.
John teeing off at Knaresborough Golf Course.
However, he had little interest in anything other than golf. In fact, aged just 10, he was picked to go on a regional coaching course.
The Yorkshire coaching made him realise that he had something that other boys his age didn’t.
“I think when I went there, I remember I was doing certain things better than most kids that were doing it.
“You realise that ‘I must be reasonably good’.”
John worked his way up through the ranks through to England under 16s.
At this stage, he says he started to figure out what standard he was at as he started to compete in tougher competitions, such as county championships.
But, despite testing himself against higher standard players, he still felt he needed to improve.
“For me, when I was that old, it was about hitting the ball further and growing a little more because I was so small.
“It only really happened once I got to 17 and 18, then I started playing in national events.”
Making the green was one of John’s aims as he was working his way through the different age groups.
For him, being able to hit the ball long complemented his ability to make the put. This then helped him to win national tournaments once he was in the under 18s age group.
Working on his shots helped him make up ground on older players, he says.
“You see the opposite of this. Lads can be unbelievable when they’re in the under 14s or under 16s and they’re six foot tall.
“But then when everyone starts catching them up physically, it flips round because they maybe have not developed other skills that you need.”
Starting from the bottom
John turned professional in 2007.
Prior to turning pro, he was picked for the Walker Cup – the equivalent of the Ryder Cup for amateur golfers.
But turning professional meant rising up through the rankings again. He uses the analogy of a football team being promoted up the divisions to the Premier League.
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In his first year, he played the Euro Tour which offers a first prize of £10,000.
For John, turning professional took some getting used to. In particular, the difference in standard of courses.
“That took a bit of adapting, because the courses are different from amateur golf.
“In amateur golf, you tend to play links golf courses that are keep it in play, shoot level par because the conditions are hard.
“Whereas, in pro golf, the courses are longer and you needed to make a lot more birdies to shoot lower scores. That took a little bit of adapting to.”
Despite the difference in courses, John says there was not a huge difference in the standard of golfers.
However, there is more pressure – which is key to those that do well.
“You could almost say that the amateur league is better than the bottom of the pro-league.
“But then there is a lot more pressure, because now it’s your livelihood.”
Making a living for golfers is about performance and the tour that they are competing in.
The higher up the ladder, the more money there is to win.
By 2009, John had seen a few promotions up the rankings and found himself on the European Tour.
At this stage, aged 23, he is playing in front of crowds and television cameras as there is more attention on the competition and those competing in it.
“When you’re that young, you don’t really think about it.
“You’re just like: ‘this is good’. I was living at home still and it was something that I always wanted to do. You just get on with it.
“Plus, within reason, I had done it from such a young age and I had done a little bit of travelling. It just becomes normality.”
Starting again after covid
But John’s career has not always been an upward trajectory.
In the year before the covid pandemic, he was relegated down the rankings twice.
He had to start from the bottom league, where it’s difficult for golfers to make ends meet.
“First of all you have got to find your form. That’s the hard bit, because you know how hard it is to get all the way back up.
“But the hardest bit was the year I was going to play on the bottom tour again covid hit and they cancelled the tour.”
During the pandemic, John was forced to play in one-day events to make a living.
The competitions were pay to enter and sometimes saw 30 players competing for prize money – which in some cases was as little as £1,000.
“It was a real grind.”
The pandemic showed how a lot of golfers have to perform in order to make a living.
John makes the comparison with professional footballers, where most are under contract – although they can see their wages drop if they are relegated.
“The difference with golf is you have to perform, because no one is paying you. You have to do well. You’re not under a contract, unless you get a sponsorship, so you are always having to play well to earn a living.”
Competing in the Open
Perhaps John’s biggest achievements are making it into two US Opens and a British Open.
The latter, which took place last year, saw him go up against the likes of Tiger Woods and Bryson DeChambeau.
The major was John’s first British Open where he competed to make the cut to play at St Andrews in Scotland.
John going through his final Open preparation at St Andrews. Pic: Harrogate Gold Club
For John, the tournament was a chance to test his metal against the big names.
The major was an eye opener, particularly witnessing the likes of Woods playing on the same course.
He described watching top golfers apply their trade as like “playing a tournament like a practice round” as they “didn’t care about the outcome of each shot”.
“For me, it’s the mentality of them. I think you could say that for most sports.
“You could look at how professional they are and if they do anything to look a lot better, but for me it’s got to be the mentality.”
The experience playing alongside big name golfers was a milestone for John.
The journey from being six years old and chipping it around a local golf course to competing to make the cut against multiple major winners is one to tell the grandkids about.
Some golfers may see playing alongside Tiger Woods as a chance to compete against their idols.
But Woods doesn’t even factor into John’s role models.
Instead, he points to Spanish two-time major winner Jose Maria Olazabal and his golf coach Mark Moore as among those who helped him.
John remembers watching Olazabal win the 1994 Masters, which has stuck with him to this day.
But perhaps his biggest inspiration was his brother, who is now a professional golf coach in Australia.
“I think the best thing for me growing up was having an older brother who is four years older than me.
“When you first start out, you think: ‘he’s better than me’. That was one of the big things for me. There’s nothing worse than losing to your brother.”
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