This article originally appeared in the February issue of NCGA Golf Magazine
2026 NCGA President Lance Parker Got His Love of the Game from His Father
By Ron Kroichick
Lance Parker recently spent some time sifting through his possessions in storage, for one of his two adult daughters. He unexpectedly came across scorecards from his long-ago junior golf days.
His dad, Paul, had kept them.
As he recounted this discovery, and with gentle prodding, Lance Parker shared stories about his introduction to the game and the deep connection it fostered between father and son. Parker, 65, recalled specific details: how he hit balls at a high school football field while his dad watched, how Paul always advised him to “swing the club down first base, inside-out,” how his dad kept shag balls in a green cotton bag from his World War II service.
“I’m going to be choking up here,” Lance said during a phone interview. “That’s what it means to me.”
Paul Parker passed away many years ago, but he left his son an enduring gift: undying passion for golf and warm memories of their bond over the game. Lance, a longtime NCGA Rules official, is the organization’s new president for 2026.
He was born in San Francisco and spent his formative years in the East Bay. Parker took lessons from PGA Pro Paul Kujawa at Concord Muni (now Diablo Creek), in preparation for Junior Golf Association of Northern California tournaments, but mostly he learned the game from his dad.
Paul Parker, the son of a single mom, was born above a liquor store on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland and lived through the Depression. He served in the Army during the war. He had nothing growing up, as Lance told it, so he did nearly everything himself – including building the car he and Lance’s mom, LaRue, drove to Rosarito Beach in Mexico for their honeymoon.
Later, as Paul forged a career in education – he was a P.E. teacher and coached golf, football and basketball at El Cerrito and Richmond High Schools – he shared his love for golf with his son. When Lance was 4, his dad put a cut-down driving range club in his hands. The grip was black electrical tape.
Lance still keeps the club in his locker at San Luis Obispo Country Club, where he’s a member.
They played at courses such as Tilden Park and Golden Gate Fields and Forest Lake, a little nine-hole track in Lake County. They attended the 1972 U.S. Open and 1977 PGA Championship at Pebble Beach, making sure to watch Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus among other marquee pros.
More than anything, Lance and his dad talked about the game and loved to play together.
“My son has a million-dollar swing,” Paul Parker liked to joke when they were out on the course, “his swing and my million dollars.”
Lance had his moments as a competitive golfer. He finished second in the 1978 JGANC Championship in Stockton, at age 17. In his early 40s, he qualified for the 2002 U.S. Mid-Amateur in Connecticut (but didn’t advance to match play).
Some physical challenges surfaced along the way. Parker broke his sternum and ribs in a 1993 car accident, hampering the flexibility in his golf swing. More recently, he dislocated and broke his right knee and right shoulder in a nasty golf cart accident in 2023. The cart flipped, Parker tried to jump out and he ended up spending three months in a wheelchair.
Then, last July, he broke and dislocated his right ankle “stepping over something” in his back yard.
Even if his body has betrayed him at times, Parker keeps chugging along at golf. He walks during his rounds whenever possible, because he believes that’s the way the game was meant to be played.
And he found a fresh outlet through his work as a Rules official. Parker officiates NCGA tournaments, the California Amateur and various USGA events. He worked last year’s U.S. Senior Open in Colorado and the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Monterey Peninsula Country Club.
In 2026, he’ll probably do the U.S. Women’s Open in Los Angeles and the Women’s Amateur outside Chattanooga, Tenn.
“I feel like I’m still competing because I’m on the field,” Parker said. “And I know what the players feel like when they put the peg in the ground because I’ve been there. I still get that sense of adrenaline.
“It keeps me in the game I love and it’s incredibly mentally stimulating. You never conquer the Rules – it’s like a never-ending endeavor.”
His knowledge of and obsession with the Rules creates lively, good-natured banter when he plays with his regular group of friends at San Luis Obispo (“Old Men Walking,” they dubbed themselves). Parker’s buddies act as if they’re playing in the U.S. Open, as one put it, because they know a Rules official is watching.
No foot wedges here.
“He’s always popping off on some obscure Rules situation, and we’re all trying to figure it out,” said Scott Cartwright, the former head pro at San Luis Obispo, onetime coach at Cal Poly SLO and a member of the crew. “Lance is a wizard with the Rules. He’s great at it, because he lets the book do the talking.”
Or as Michael Pineau, another one of Parker’s pals, put it: “He has passion for the game like nobody I’ve ever met. His life revolves around it.”
That devotion became abundantly clear when Parker was sworn in as NCGA president, in a ceremony at Poppy Hills. Cartwright and Pineau also made the drive from San Luis Obispo, to see the big moment.
Parker gave a brief speech and got teary-eyed as he talked about that first club his dad gave him at age 4. It’s golf, yes, but it’s also family history.
“He’ll be a great leader – his attention to detail is incredible,” Cartwright said. “People who know him within golf circles respect him immensely.”
Make no mistake: Paul Parker would be proud.