ONE of Australia's most successful golfers will headline an impressive group of professionals who will be on the Mid-North Coast in the coming weeks.
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United States PGA tour winner and Australian golfing great, Craig Parry, will add real depth to an already strong field.
Parry will headline the group which will contest a series of four events which make up a part of the Choice Hotels PGA Pro Am Series.
All the golfing action will kick off at South West Rocks with the club hosting its first Pro Am event on Thursday.
Players will then head to Wauchope to compete over two days on Saturday and Sunday.
Next on the cards will be the Better Homes Port Macquarie Pro Am.
The Port Macquarie competition has been a marquee event on the Australian pro-am circuit for several years.
Parry made his Port Macquarie debut in 2011, finishing equal third.
He returned a year later to go one better and finished second to Leigh McKechnie.
Port Macquarie Golf Club's Keith Heap said Parry had a stern warning for his rivals after finishing third and then second in consecutive years.
"He wasn't able to come last year for whatever reason," Heap said.
"But apparently he told a few of the other pros they needn't bother turning up after he finished third and then second because he was going to go one better again.
"And he's probably the favourite to win too."
Parry will only contest the Port Macquarie event and Heap believes that says a lot for the course and the competition itself.
"Some players will play in all the events around here and some won't," Heap said.
"It reflects the quality of our course that Parry is here only for the Port event."
So good is the competition that Heap believes it has kick started the career of last year's winner Dimi Papadatos.
"Before he won here, hardly anyone had ever heard of him," Heap said.
"But most people have heard of him now.
"He has gone on and won the New Zealand Open and when he was interviewed there he mentioned how he won in Port."
Heap said the course was in excellent condition ahead of what is the largest golf tournament in the area.
He said the biggest obstacle for competitors to overcome was not so obvious.
"We are right beside the ocean so we often get some strong winds," he said.
"Once you get up above that tree line it can be deceiving how much the wind is blowing.
"Some courses favour long and big hitters. This is not one of them.
"It's the precision hitter, the ones that can get it the ball where they want it that will do well."
More golf in Monday's Port News
