Recent win means golf’s a whole new ball game for Parry

CRAIG PARRY was one of the earliest arrivals at Mount Juliet for this week’s American Express World Golf Championship. He arrived straight from his home in Sydney where he had been celebrating his victory in the NEC Invitational World Championship last month in Seattle.

Parry isn’t promising himself or indeed his brother and caddy Glenn he can beat the odds once again. But he acknowledges that his NEC triumph has imbued a new level of confidence that was conspicuously absent through most of a season which saw him run up a succession of missed cuts.

It’s a whole new ball game now and the burly 5ft 6inch Aussie, who divides his time between homes in Sydney and Orlando, commands a respect from his peers that wasn’t necessarily there prior to his exploits at the Sahalee club.