Mike Parker Receives BC Golf Distinguished Service Award

The longtime member of Morningstar Golf Course was recently honoured with one of BC Golf’s top awards...

Michael Parker has been a rules official since 2006. “It allows me to give something back to the game,” Parker says. “I have been golfing since I was eight years old and really enjoyed it. Golf rules [mean] everyone should play golf the same way. Along with your handicap, it evens the playing field. I am kind of a golf purist and it makes sense to me to help people understand how to play the game.”

Parker is a regular at Zone 6 events and has also worked as a rules official at Mackenzie Tour events in B.C. and Golf Canada national championships. One of his most memorable rulings came at a Mackenzie Tour qualifying school a couple of years ago at Crown Isle Golf Resort in Courtenay.

A player on the fifth hole thought his tee shot had found water and took a drop and played what he thought was his third shot. He then discovered his original ball had not entered the hazard. When Parker told him he’d receive a two-shot penalty for playing a wrong ball and would have to return to the tee under the stroke and distance penalty, the player was not happy.

“He heaved his club about 170 yards,” Parker says. “It was a helluva nice throw. He was yelling and screaming and using swear words and this and that. I had to tell him any more activity like that and you are apt to be disqualified. He settled down after that and life went on.”

Parker was nominated for the Distinguished Service Award by British Columbia Golf board member Michael Cook. “Mike just continues to give, give, give,” Cook says of Parker. “His work goes right from the club level to the national level, which I think makes him so deserving of this award.” 

Parker finds the rules work he does with juniors especially rewarding. “The kids are much more eager to understand what the rules are,” Parker says. “And they listen... we give the juniors a little bit more latitude. If we see them doing something wrong and it really doesn’t impact things, we’ll go up and tell them, ‘You shouldn’t have done that.’

“I think you have to have a lot of empathy when you approach a junior. You don’t want to quote a rule number. You want to use it as a learning experience for the junior. And that is one of the traits of a good rules official: being empathetic with the player and not coming across as an autocrat, but more as a teacher or mentor.”

Read the full article by Brad Zeimer on BritishColumbiaGolf.org...