Parker who was one of only 150 players to qualify for the championship survived the initial cut because of his strong performance in the first two rounds. Making the cut allowed Parker to play the entire weekend, which he said was his original goal for his tournament performance.
Parker opened with a 72 (+2), which included two birdies on the front nine holes. Despite his impressive score, Parker described his opening round as "not a big deal."
"The score looked good, but the bad shots were on my mind," Parker said.
When asked to describe his play in general, Parker recalled his strong putting throughout the tournament and especially good play on the fourth day of competition.
Despite his impressive performance, Parker said he found the tournament to be challenging on many fronts.
"Every hole is a challenge," he said. "The environment was challenging. The ball went farther in the afternoon."
Parker also explained that flying across the country to play in the tournament was another challenge.
"I never really adjusted to the time change," Parker said. "It was very tiring. Getting enough sleep was difficult. At night, I kept getting up at one or two in the morning."
Regardless of those challenges, however, playing in front of a large crowd helped Parker shrug off the fatigue, he said, stating that "playing in front of 30,000 kind of peps you up."
Although he accomplished his goal of competing in the entire tournament which he did not do in his 1990 U.S. Open appearance Parker found that other aspects of the tournament made it "one of the best [experiences] of my life," he said.
Additionally, Parker said he learned lessons that he said he hopes to pass on to the Big Green players that he coaches, including the importance of being mentally focused on the golf course.
"Golf is more than just hitting a ball," he said. "It's more mental than anything, you need to be mentally strong."
Now that the tournament has been completed, Parker said he is extremely satisfied that he participated in the competition.
