Renaissance man John Parry completes European Challenge Tour hat-trick
The career renaissance of John Parry continues apace after the 37-year-old from Harrogate won on the European Challenge Tour for the third time in seven months.
His hat-trick of wins, sealed by a one-shot victory at the Italian Challenge Open, earns the Knaresborough GC member instant promotion to the DP World Tour for the remainder of this season and the entirety of the 2025 campaign.
The sudden nature of this recent burst of victories flies in the face of what Parry has produced in his near 15 years bouncing between Europe’s top three tours.
He had a win in Toulouse on the Challenge Tour back in 2009 and then won as a European Tour rookie at the Vivendi Cup back in October, 2010.
The then 23-year-old could surely not have predicted that he would have to wait 14 years for his next tournament triumph at this level, during which time he dropped off the continent’s top tour twice, once earning his place back by winning Qualifying School before slipping as low as playing on the EuroPro Tour three years ago – the last time he lost his playing privileges.
But now Parry is back and seemingly in a stronger winning frame of mind than ever before.
He qualified for the Open at St Andrews two years ago and, after opening with a round of 69, revealed that a more relaxed approach was suiting his game as he entered his mid-30s.
Maybe that paved the way for a victory spree that began at the Delhi Challenge in March, continued at the Blot Open de Bretagne in France in June and then in Tuscany last month.
He is the second Challenge Tour player to win three times this year, following Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen in earning instant promotion to the DP World Tour.
And, Parry actually overtakes Neergaard-Petersen at the top of the Road to Mallorca Rankings for the first time this season following his victory at the Argentario Golf Club.
“Because it’s been a while since I’ve won before this year, it gives you that little spark that you can still do it,” he said.
“The other thing this season has done is help me to find that consistency. I’ve never won more than once before in a season so to win three times is a goal that I didn’t think was achievable. I’m over the moon.”
While he will return to try and win the Challenge Tour finale in Mallorca at the end of October, he can now plan to play in the higher calibre events on the DP World Tour.
The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Open de France and Andalucia Masters are all now available to him, as is the possibility of the season-ending events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in November if he can claim enough points.
“It’s fantastic,” he said. “I’ve got a free hit on the DP World Tour now for the rest of the season where you never know what can happen, and I’ve obviously got next year as well.”
At the Italian Challenge in Tuscany, Parry started the day two strokes clear and remained in front on another low scoring day, carding a three under par round of 68 to reach 18 under par and win by one shot from South African Justin Walters.