Player of the year at 6

Owings’ girl takes title in Philadelphia

Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2007

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted Photos Johnna Parlett won the 8-and-under player of the year title in the U.S. Kids Golf Philadelphia South Summer Local Tour. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo Johnna Parlett poses with her player of the year trophy. ‘‘I really like all of it,” she said of golf.

Johnna Parlett of Owings qualified for the 2008 U.S. Kids Golf World Championship after winning player of the year in the girls 8-and-under age group in the 2007 U.S. Kids Golf Philadelphia South Summer Local Tour, which wrapped up on Aug. 16.

Parlett needed to win player of the year and shoot a 47 or better at any of the eight courses on the tour in order to qualify for the world championship. She shot a 44 at the Ravens Claw Golf Club in Pottstown, Pa., the fifth tournament on the tour and the third that Parlett participated in. She won the nine-hole tournament by 13 strokes.

Parlett did not join the tour, which began on July 20 at the Wyncote Golf Club in Oxford, Pa., until July 12 at the Inniscrone Golf Club in Avondale, Pa., the third stop on the tour.

Parlett, who turned 6 on July 24, played the final six tournaments on the tour, finishing in first place in the first five she participated in. She finished fourth in the Tour Championship, which returned to Wyncote on Aug. 16. Players were awarded points for first-, second- and third-place finishes at all the tournaments, and the points awarded were doubled for the tour championship.

Despite playing in only six of the eight tournaments and receiving no points for the championship, Parlett finished with the highest point total of any participant in the girls 8-and-under group with 174 points and won player of the year. The second highest point total was 110.

Even though it was her worst finish, Parlett’s father, John, considers the tour championship her greatest victory.

‘‘I think nerves got to her and she lost her stuff,” he said. ‘‘She came in fourth but she went from playing so bad to par on the next hole. The last four holes she really kicked some butt. That’s when I knew she was going to be a heck of a player. The last tournament was the proudest I’ve ever been of her in my life.”

‘‘She didn’t care much about finishing fourth when they handed her that [player of the year] trophy,” said Lori Parlett, Johnna’s mother.

John attributes some of Johnna’s struggles in the championship to a two-week break he and Lori awarded her following her victory at Raven’s Claw. When the time came for the next tournament, it was obvious she had lost some of her touch. Johnna was able to avoid major setbacks during the two tournaments following Raven’s Claw and she finished first in both, but the rustiness coupled with the pressure of playing in the championship helped contribute to her fourth-place finish.

‘‘Her putting was horrible in the championship,” John Parlett said. ‘‘I took a lot of responsibility for it. We’ll never [take two weeks off] again.”

Johnna Parlett, who said her biggest strength is her drive and that she would like to improve on her putting, began playing golf at the age 2 when John, who considers himself a ‘‘pretty decent golfer,” noticed something special about her swing.

‘‘I would take her to driving ranges when she was 2 and I would have instructors handing me their cards,” John Parlett said.

In the midst of all the success and attention from regulars at Mellomar Golf Park in Owings, Parlett says his daughter remains humble and modest, almost as if she doesn’t realize that what she is doing at such a young age is anything special.

‘‘She never talks about herself,” he said. ‘‘She doesn’t talk to anybody about that. She doesn’t brag at all.”

True to form, while being interviewed for this story, Johnna elected to have John, who she lovingly refers to as her ‘‘daddy caddy,” do most of the talking for her, preferring to play with her two younger sisters, Sydney and Kendall.

Sydney began hitting a golf ball in the Parlett living room two days after she started walking, and she expects to be following in Johnna’s footsteps shortly.

As the local tour champion, Parlett will compete next year in regional tournaments all over the United States against other local tour champions before she tests her mettle against kids from all over the world in the world championship.

Even with all the time spent practicing and competing, never lost to the Parletts is the most important thing: Johnna’s love for the game.

‘‘We’re just glad she likes it and not because we do,” said Lori, who videotapes every tournament from a golf cart while John plays coach and caddy with Johnna on the course. ‘‘Some kids play sports because their parents want them to, but we make sure that it’s what she wants to do.”

When asked what her favorite thing about golf is, her answer was, ‘‘I really like all of it.”

So what does the future hold for Calvert’s newest sports prodigy? ‘‘She wants to go to Stanford to play golf, and then she wants to design golf courses,” John Parlett said. ‘‘And her sister wants to build the houses that go on the golf course.”