#TOURBound: Parker Coody forges distinct path amid storied legacy

Continuing a rich golf legacy within an esteemed family history is no small task. Charles Coody, the 1971 Masters champion, left large shoes to fill for his grandsons Parker and Pierceson, who didn’t have to use their imagination to visualize a trip to Augusta National – all they had to do was reflect on their days as 6-year-old children caddying for "Pro" (granddad Charles Coody) at the 2006 Masters Par 3 Contest.

Carving out said path while your twin brother is pursuing the same dream? Arguably even tougher. As 23-year-old Parker Coody set out on his professional golf career, he faced the added complexity of competing against his brother Pierceson, who was on a parallel journey. The Coody twins, often side-by-side on the golf course and in life, spurred each other to great heights, creating a unique camaraderie and friendly competition, but also intensifying the pressure.

Pierceson clinched his first PGA TOUR card earlier in the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour season, on the strength of two victories, and Parker followed suit at the season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance. Parker finished No. 25 on the season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Points List, his campaign highlighted by four top-five finishes in 20 starts. The top 30 after the Korn Ferry Tour Championship earned 2024 PGA TOUR membership.

Parker began the season with an uncertain schedule after a T107 finish at Final Stage of Q-School last fall, simply striving to earn as many starts as possible. He ended the season with a celebration on the 18th green at Victoria National Golf Club in southern Indiana before joining his brother at the traditional TOUR card studio photoshoot – not as an excited onlooker, but as an equal participant. The twins said it felt fake, a sentiment that could be forgiven. They’re the first twins to earn TOUR membership together in the same Korn Ferry Tour season.

And Parker did it on conditional status, no less.

“It’s so exciting to have him out there as well,” Parker said of receiving a 2024 PGA TOUR card alongside his brother. “For us to be able to be in the same class, I don’t think it’s anything we’ll ever forget.

“Hopefully we’ll be teeing it up at Sony (Open) together, and I think we’ll be playing a lot of practice rounds again next year.”

Parker, a former standout on the University of Texas men’s golf team alongside his brother, graduated in 2022 and competed on PGA TOUR Canada that summer after a No. 13 finish on that year's PGA TOUR University Ranking. He won the CentrePort Canada Rail Park Manitoba Open en route to a No. 12 finish on the season-long Fortinet Cup, but his 2023 Korn Ferry Tour season featured an uncertain beginning with four missed cuts in his first five starts. Parker only improved from there, though, finishing the season with seven top-25s including a runner-up finish at the Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper, coming just two strokes back of his victorious brother. The week prior, Parker finished in solo third at The Ascendant presented by Blue. It was a key stretch in his campaign.

Parker’s persistence and achievements throughout the season, which also included TOUR cameos at The Honda Classic (as a Monday qualifier) and AT&T Byron Nelson (on a sponsor exemption), led to his first TOUR card. Sunday evening at the AT&T Byron Nelson proved crucial; he remembers sitting in the parking lot deciding whether to fly to Kansas City for the AdventHealth Championship’s Monday qualifier. He headed to the qualifier, shot 66 on four hours of sleep to earn a tee time, then finished T5 to set up his season. He didn’t look back, and now he’ll be a full-time member on the 2024 PGA TOUR.

The Coody brothers have ascended to the TOUR in near-tandem. They were teammates at the University of Texas, helping the Longhorns clinch the 2022 NCAA Championship title despite enduring an unexpected setback with both brothers breaking their right arms in a relay race during the autumn of their senior year. “It’s as stupid as it sounds,” they laughed in agreement at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.

The twins’ progression to the Korn Ferry Tour wasn’t a surprise, especially to their father Kyle, who played the Korn Ferry Tour in the early 1990s, but their ascension into golf’s elite as a synced foray (the first time fraternal twins have held PGA TOUR membership simultaneously since Allan and Curtis Strange in 1981) proved emotional for the entire family. Parker and Pierceson each shed a tear as they FaceTimed their grandpa Charles from the 18th green at Victoria National after receiving their TOUR cards, their parents Kyle and Debbie looking on with pride.

Despite the shared journey, Parker carved out an independent arc, from conditional 2023 Korn Ferry Tour member to 2024 PGA TOUR member. The third-generation pro has embarked on a golf odyssey entirely of his own making, with merit that allows him to tee it up in January as a PGA TOUR player.