Parker Goes On Tour
Parker McLachlin begins his PGA Tour career this week at the course where he once worked odd jobs so he could afford lessons
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McLachlin rips it during last
year’s Sony Open
in six months to get through the pain of playing. That was pretty tough, and they couldn’t really figure out what was wrong. They knew there was a bone chip in my wrist they could see, but didn’t know the tendon was torn.”
Following the end of his senior season in 2002, McLachlin underwent surgery to reattach the tendon. He returned to Hawaii to rehab for six months and, with the help of old friend Nichols, now director of golf at Ko Olina, and sports psychologist Don Greene, he began working his way back. After a couple of months refining his game with Head in Michigan, he was back competing on a variety of tours including the Hooters, Spanos and most recently Nationwide Tour.
McLachlin missed his opportunity to get his PGA Tour card in 2005 by a single stroke - an outcome that may on the surface seem to be a missed opportunity, but may have in fact helped in his development. Instead of worrying about making cuts and Monday qualifiers, McLachlin played a career high 32 events and learned what it really takes to play golf on a weekly basis. It’s a long grind filled with constant travel and long hours of practice, so understanding how to budget your time and commitments is of utmost importance.
“I learned a lot about being able to understand how much time I need to take off to be away from the game, to be away from the competition,” he says. “And then what works well for me when I’m playing weeks in a row.”
McLachlin has not yet set his goals for the upcoming season. He’ll sit down with his sports psychologist and map out exactly what he’s shooting for. But the quick answer he said is to play good enough to be considered for rookie of the year. A strong showing at the Sony would definitely put him on track. And even if he doesn’t exactly set the PGA on fire in his first season, he knows that support from home is always there.
“It’s the most important thing,” he says about the support of his wife of two years. “There have been a lot of great golfers that have not been able to fully develop their potential because they didn’t have the support at home. I’m really, really grateful that Kristy is as supportive as she is, and that she has stuck with me through the mini tours and the Nationwide tour. And I think it’s something that is as gratifying to her as it is to me to be on the PGA Tour this year.”
Scott Simpson agrees. The former U.S. Open champ and longtime family friend from his years living in Hawaii, says that McLachlin’s family will be an important factor in his success.
“He has a good support system from his family and his sports psychologist, and that will be a big help,” says the man who will be McLachlin’s bag for the second year in a row. “One advantage he has is that he won’t change things when things go bad. When you’re missing cuts and struggling, you tend to want to try other things, but because of his support he will stick with his game. That first year on tour is tough, but he has good people around him, especially his wife Kristy, and that will be a lot of help to him out there.”
But while the support never waivers, time alone is another thing that Parker and Kristy, like all professional golfer couples, have had to learn to deal with.
“Last year we traveled about 25 percent of the time together. Being home alone by yourself is kind of a hard thing to do when you’re doing it for two or three weeks in a row and you’re like ‘where is this person I’m supposedly married to?‘So it’s been challenging for her to be at home alone, and for me it was
challenging to be on the road alone.”
The Sony Open runs Jan. 11-14. Admission is $15 a day at the gate and $50 weeklong. The tournament is the largest charity event in Hawaii and has raised more than $6 million for the local not-for-profits since 1999. Players in this year’s event include Jim Furyk (No. 2 on the money list), Vijay Singh (No. 4), Geoff Oglilvy (No. 5), Trevor Immelman (No. 7), John Daly, Paul Azinger, J. J. Henry, Tom Lehman and local golfers Dean Wilson (No. 22), Tadd Fujikawa, Kevin Hayashi and Michelle Wie.
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