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This article originally appeared in the February issue of NCGA Golf Magazine
By Cameron Morfit
San Luis Obispo Country Club, the home course of new NCGA President Lance Parker, is quirky to the point of begging a few questions.
Questions like: Is that cilantro I’m smelling?
Answer: Yes. The club is on California’s fertile Central Coast, a growing region that includes the Edna Valley, known to wine-lovers for its chardonnay and pinot noir.
Questions like: What’s with these greens?
Answer: They are such rollercoasters as to have honed the skills of eight-time PGA Tour winner and NCGA Hall of Famer Loren “Boss of the Moss” Roberts, who remains an honorary member.
But at San Luis Obispo CC, there is one question heard in the pro shop more than all others: What the heck are the Old Tom Morris tees?
The tees are listed on GHIN.com, and the answer to what exactly they are goes back to Parker, 65, and his love of the game and its Rules – he’s a Rules official in his spare time. When the course was undergoing renovations in 2021-22, Parker and his regular foursome played through, making use of whatever holes remained open that day.
And they gave themselves no preferred lies.
“We played it down no matter what,” says Parker, who runs his own, eponymous wealth-management firm. “The ball would be on some dirt or mud or sand, some place where the grass hadn’t grown back, and we’d say, ‘Old Tom Morris would have killed for this lie!’”
Official yardage from the Old Tom Morris tees: 6,027.
San Luis Obispo CC also boasts bocce courts, which are a prime gathering spot for families in the summer, and a big tennis culture. The club used to be semi-famous for being the home of the Straight Down Fall Classic, which brought PGA Tour, Korn Ferry Tour, PGA Tour Champions and PGA professionals as well as elite amateurs from far and wide. (The active-lifestyle apparel manufacturer Straight Down is based in San Luis Obispo.) Parker remembers the time he partnered up with then-San Luis pro Scott Cartwright and, starting on the back nine, they birdied their first three holes. (Nos. 10 and 11 are both par 5s.) Alas, despite their hot start they fell 2 down to Paul Stankowski and the amateur Brad Payne, who eagled both par 5s.
“Scott and I looked at each other and said, ‘What do you have to do to get the tee?’” Parker said as he recalled the 36-hole scratch pro-am, best-ball event, where Gary McCord served as master of ceremonies. Fred Couples came every year, as did Roberts, the most famous golfing alumnus of Cal Poly SLO. Sadly, though, the event is no longer.
“When the Tour changed the scheduling and added the fall series, it became harder to get the Tour pros,” Parker said. “Then it became club pros, and interest waned.”
Nowadays, the quirkiest thing about the club is those Old Tom Morris tees. Parker, a father of two girls who is also a dog person, has an affinity for off-roading (he owns a Jeep) and doesn't shy away from rough terrain on the course, either. He laughs at his crew’s rabid commitment to play the ball down.
“Old Tom Morris would kill for this lie!” has become a jokey rallying cry for the foursome; one of them, real estate developer and skiing fanatic Michael Pineau, found a clunky old trophy and turned it into the Old Tom Morris Cup. It's in play each time they tee it up. Rick Ventura, the head pro at San Luis Obispo, is often asked about the Old Tom Morris tees, which may personify Parker as much as anything.
“Old school,” Ventura said of Parker. “I consult with him on the Rules all the time.”
Added Pineau, “Lance is a Rules guy to the core, so he’s going, ‘No, you can’t bump the ball. Old Tom Morris didn’t get to bump the ball at St. Andrews. We play every round like it’s the U.S. Open. There’s no breaking any Rules, or Lance will call a penalty, and trust me, he’s done it several times.” Pineau laughed.
Parker and the others in his regular game used to all be scratch golfers, so they don’t give out strokes, with one exception. Cartwright, the club’s former head pro who also coached the men’s and women’s golf teams at Cal Poly, is the best of them and so must make allowances for as much on the first tee.
Also, Parker has been less than 100%. Normally a prolific practicer known for his chipping, he suffered multiple injuries when a golf cart tipped over and landed on him while he was officiating at the California Amateur at Lake Merced in 2023. He broke and dislocated his right knee and shoulder and was out for 10 months. He also broke his ankle in his yard last summer, necessitating another stretch away from the game, this one lasting five months.
Parker kept up his work with the NCGA, where he was vice president. He's been involved with the Board of Directors since 2019. Cartwright and Pineau attended as Parker became the organization’s 98th president, succeeding Kevin Peyton, at the NCGA’s annual meeting at Poppy Hills in December. The evening was a full-circle moment for Parker, whose favorite golf memory is watching Jack Nicklaus play in the 1972 U.S. Open at nearby Pebble Beach Golf Links.
“He got teary-eyed,” Pineau said. “Scott and I thought we were going to have to go up there and get him. I’ve never seen anyone who loves the game more than Lance.”
Indeed, the NCGA got a good one in Parker, who met his hero Nicklaus at the 2018 U.S. Amateur at Pebble. Meeting Old Tom may be out of reach, but maybe not. Maybe an elderly gent in a tweed suit and cloth cap will walk out of that cilantro field, stroke his white beard, and ask: “What the heck are the Old Tom Morris tees?”