BEFORE he found what he jokingly calls “job security” as Peter Senior’s full-time caddie, Gary Parker served a long apprenticeship in the unforgiving school of tournament golf.
In the mid-to-late 1990s the former banker caddied for leading Queensland amateur Wayne Perske, even travelling at his own expense to Interstate Series events simply for the chance to learn.
His first professional bag was for Don Fardon Jr and over time he worked with a number of Australian tour players including David Bransdon, Matt Millar, Scott Strange et al. He also caddied for international competitors at the Australian Ladies’ Masters.
Parker says those years were his education until the breakthrough in an airport lounge.
Parker had crossed paths with Peter Senior during events in 1998 and 1999, then again in 2000 both in Australia and briefly on the European Tour while caddying for American Robin Byrd. Late one night the conversation turned to the following season.
“Are you going back to Europe next year?” Senior asked.
“I told him I would if I could find somebody decent to work for,” Parker recalls.
Senior didn’t hesitate. “I’m going back mid-year, so why not come with me?”
And just like that Parker stepped into the top tier of world golf alongside one of Australia’s best and most respected professionals.
Parker told Inside Golf he had stepped into a different world. The first weeks at the elite level were less about strategy and more about survival.
Gary Parker shows off some of the memorabilia he collected while caddying for Peter Senior.
“To be honest, the first few years I caddied at the top level I was really just a bag-carrier who was trying to learn what my player required,” he said. “But there was never any doubt this was several worlds apart from club golf.”
The differences were immediate and stark. Course set-ups were brutal.
“The rough is long and the pin positions are always in difficult positions on super-fast greens,” Parker said. “There is so much preparation and practice players and caddies have to do before each tournament.”
Yardage books are studied meticulously and wind shifts are analysed, not guessed.
“At that level every detail matters,” Parker says, “you can’t just turn up and play.”
Of course, a caddie’s role evolves with trust. In the early days, Parker’s task was straightforward: provide distances, note pin positions, offer assurance and assess the wind, “which Peter claims I never got right,” Parker laughs.
After all, Senior had been a professional for decades and he knew his swing and his temperament intimately.
Parker understood that his value lay not in overriding instinct, but in sharpening it.
“As a caddie you spend a lot of time with your player on and off the course, so an easy rapport is essential,” Parker says. “Peter is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, and with our similar sense of humour we became comfortable very quickly.”
And if disagreement arose it required tact.
“You can’t just say, ‘I think you need an easy six-iron’,” Parker explains. “That introduces uncertainty. Instead, I’d say the seven-iron he’d chosen should get there if he hit a ‘good, solid shot’. It makes him pause and reconsider without challenging him directly.”
At The Belfry, that diplomacy was tested. Faced with a bunker shot over water to a green, Senior selected a seven-iron.
Parker gently suggested the club would work provided it was struck perfectly.
“The determined bugger came right out of his shoes to hit his chosen seven-iron hard enough to get there,” he laughed.
One of Parker’s most vivid memories came at the final hole of the 2009 US Champions Tour Qualifying School. Senior stood on the brink of securing status on the lucrative over-50s circuit. A par would be enough.
The tee shot was placed safely short of a fairway bunker, leaving a full four-iron to a left-hand pin bordered by water at the front, left and rear.
“The margin for error was thin,” Parker recalls.
He had people in the crowd relaying leaderboard updates. Together, he and Senior agreed on the plan: aim 25 feet right of the flag, take the safe two-putt par and book their ticket.
“With great calm, we planned it out,” Parker says.
Senior stood over the ball. And fired straight at the hole.
It pitched and released to 10 feet, setting up a birdie opportunity, which he holed.
“Instead of scraping through, he won Q-School,” Parker says. “I immediately said, ‘What happened to our plan’?”
Senior’s reply: “I felt so calm standing over it, I just thought, why not?”
Parker smiles at the memory. “I’m taking that as a win.”
Over a decade on tour, Parker observed dozens of elite players at close quarters.
The practice range, he says, can be deceptive theatre.
“You’d watch guys flush shot after shot, then go out and shoot 74 or 75.”
When he asked Senior about it, the answer was blunt: “It’s what you’ve got when the bell rings that matters.”
Still competing on the PGA Legends Tour, Peter Senior has enjoyed a long and successful professional career.
The very best players have trained both body and mind to score.
“When playing well, they make it look effortless,” Parker said. “When struggling, they grind, limiting damage and salvaging rounds that others would surrender.
“Under pressure, they sharpen rather than shrink.”
Parker and Senior were fortunate enough to play alongside Tiger Woods at times.
“You could almost feel his intensity,” Parker says.
Later, they played with Tom Watson, an equally fierce competitor but with a different personality.
“With Tom, it was a quiet, intense resolve,” Parker says. “Very different energy, but the same underlying steel.”
Tour life is often described as relentless, but Parker’s experience with Senior allowed for balance.
Their schedule typically involved two European stints of four to six weeks each year, interspersed with Australian events.
“I was having the time of my life,” Parker says. “Caddying for a good bloke at great events, seeing the world and visiting places I never dreamed I’d get to see.”
He travelled with a close-knit group of European Tour caddies who welcomed him into their routines. Airports, hire cars and hotel lobbies became familiar terrain.
As for scrutiny, Parker shrugs it off.
“Peter is a well-rounded family and business man who has a good reputation amongst players, caddies and the public. In my experience, there was no scrutiny on such people.”
The job was demanding, but it was also an adventure.
Looking back, Parker identifies two important lessons from his decade inside the ropes.
“The first is about shot selection,” he says. “Successful players only attempt shots in competition that they know they can execute. The great ones are constantly expanding that knowledge by working with coaches to add new reliable options.”
For Marker, the second lesson is humbler and more personal.
“My own golf constantly reminds me that it’s a lot easier to pick a club than it is to hit a club,” he says.
For all the yardage calculations and strategic debates, execution remains paramount.
The broader life lesson is equally clear: when opportunity knocks, answer.
“When you’re presented with an opportunity, seize it,” Parker advises. “Work honestly and diligently to make the most of it and enjoy the ride while it lasts.”
For Gary Parker, that ride included major tournaments, global travel, brushes with legends and countless fairways walked beside one of Australia’s most enduring professionals.
Yes, the trophies and paydays belong to the player but the memories, good times, good people, interesting places and a truckload of mostly true stories belong equally to the man carrying the bag.
And those, he says, will stay with him for the rest of his life.
Chief writer David Newbery has been living, breathing and writing and editing golf for more than 30 years. His extensive knowledge of the game comes from covering golf around the world. Hired by Inside Golf in 2009, David previously worked as the editor of The Golfer for 25 years and before that worked for numerous daily newspapers in Australia and overseas. The Brisbane-based journalist describes his golf game as “a work in progress”, but has had the privilege of playing golf with some of the game’s best players including nine-time major winner Gary Player. David enjoys travelling, reading, music, photography and spending time with family and friends – on and off the golf course. 
