Lucas John Kendall Parsons (born 4 October 1969) is an Australian former professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

er. Parsons was born in

Orange, New South Wales Orange is a city in the Central Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia. It is west of the state capital, Sydney on a great circle at an altitude of . Orange had an urban population of 41,920 at the 2021 Australia Census, 2021 Cens ...

. As an amateur, he won both the

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

and New Zealand Amateur Championships in 1991. He turned professional the following year and joined the

PGA Tour of Australasia The PGA Tour of Australasia, currently titled as the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia for sponsorship reasons, is a professional golf tour for men, owned and operated by the PGA of Australia. Official events on the tour count for World Golf ...

. Parsons won seven tournaments on the PGA Tour of Australasia, including the

New Zealand Open The New Zealand Open is the premier men's golf tournament in New Zealand. It has been a regular fixture on the PGA Tour of Australasia tournament schedule since the 1970s. The 2019 event was the 100th edition of the tournament. Since 2014 it has ...

in 1995. He played one unsuccessful season on the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

–based

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

in 1996. He also played for a time on the

European Tour The European Tour, currently titled as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, and legally the PGA European Tour or the European Tour Group, is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European ...

after graduating from the second tier

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour, currently titled as the HotelPlanner Tour for sponsorship reasons and also sometimes referred to as the European Challenge Tour, is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European To ...

in 1999, having won two tournaments and finished 10th on the money list. His best season-end ranking on the European Tour Order of Merit was 37th in 2000, the year he won the Greg Norman Holden International, also a PGA Tour of Australasia event. He finished a career best 2nd on that tour's Order of Merit at the end of the 1999/2000 season.

MasterChef Australia

Having retired from tournament golf at the end of 2008, Parsons now runs a

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargi ...

Randwick, New South Wales Randwick is a suburb in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Randwick is located 6 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government ar ...

, and was a participant in the first season of the competitive cooking television show ''

MasterChef Australia ''MasterChef Australia'' is an Australian competitive cooking reality show based on the original British ''MasterChef (British TV series), MasterChef''. It is produced by Endemol Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and ch ...

''. He hoped to expand his business and open a restaurant. He cooked a Singaporean Chili Crab dish which impressed the judges and helped him progress to the

semi-finals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

. Parsons beat celebrity chef

Ben O'Donoghue Benjamin O'Donoghue (born 22 May 1970) is an Australian chef. Early years O'Donoghue was five years old when his family moved from England to Port Hedland, Western Australia. At the age of ten, his family moved to Perth. On finishing school O'D ...

in the sixth Celebrity Chef Challenge to guarantee himself a place in the finals. He was the first finalist eliminated on 13 July 2009 followed by former competitor Julia Jenkins who also won a celebrity chef challenge.

Amateur wins

*1990 Lagonda Trophy (England) *1991

Australian Amateur The Australian Amateur is the national amateur golf championship of Australia. It has been played annually since 1894, except for the war years, and is organised by Golf Australia. Having traditionally been a match play event, from 2021 it has ...

New Zealand Amateur The New Zealand Amateur is the national amateur golf championship of New Zealand. It has been played annually since 1893, except for the war years and the COVID-19 pandemic, and is organised by New Zealand Golf. Currently the event is played o ...

, Australian Medal,

New South Wales Amateur The New South Wales Amateur Championship is the state amateur golf championship of New South Wales, Australia. It was first played in 1898. History In early 1898 Lord Hampden, the Governor of New South Wales, presented a solid silver cup to th ...

Professional wins (9)

European Tour wins (1)

¹Co-sanctioned by the

PGA Tour of Australasia wins (4)

¹Co-sanctioned by the

PGA Tour of Australasia playoff record (0–1)

Challenge Tour wins (2)

Other wins (3)

*1997 Toyota Southern Classic *1997 Queensland PGA Championship (Development Tour) *1998 Queensland PGA Championship (Development Tour)

Results in major championships

''Note: Parsons never played in the

Masters Tournament The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply the Masters, or as the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four men's major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week in April, the Masters is the ...

or the

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. The PGA is one of the four men's major golf champi ...

.''
"T" = tied

Results in World Golf Championships

"T" = Tied

Team appearances

Amateur * Nomura Cup (representing Australia): 1991 (winners) *

Eisenhower Trophy The Eisenhower Trophy (World Men's Amateur Team Championships) is the biennial World Amateur Team Championship for men organized by the International Golf Federation. Since the tournament was first played in 1958 Eisenhower Trophy, 1958, it is nam ...

(representing Australia):

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

* Sloan Morpeth Trophy (representing Australia): 1992 * Australian Men's Interstate Teams Matches (representing New South Wales): 1989 (winners), 1990 (winners), 1991 (winners), 1992 (winners) Professional *

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

(representing Australia):

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

* Alfred Dunhill Challenge (representing Australasia): 1995

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Parsons, Lucas Australian male golfers PGA Tour golfers European Tour golfers PGA Tour of Australasia golfers MasterChef Australia contestants People from the Central West (New South Wales) Golfers from Sydney 1969 births Living people Sportsmen from New South Wales 20th-century Australian sportsmen