Join us as we take a tour on the PGA Tour with Parker McLachlin, a former Punahou athlete. McLachlin earned his PGA Tour card for this season. He joins Castle alum Dean Wilson as the only Hawai'i golfers on the PGA Tour. McLachlin, Waikoloa's touring pro, will write his impressions on events that he's just completed and tournaments that are upcoming on his calendar.

Aloha from Scottsdale.

We just wrapped up the AT&T Pebble Beach Celebrity Pro Am — my third event this year and it turned out to be a great week.

The weather was incredible and I had a lot of friends and family that came into town for the event. My dad (Chris, who had suffered a stroke in California but is home now) was able to walk the golf course three out of the four days and I posted another top-15 finish this season, which is always good.

Last year, I felt like I played really good golf on the West Coast Swing and finished anywhere from 18th to 25th. Now I feel like I'm playing mediocre golf and I'm finishing inside the top 15. I actually just went to the doctor today and he told me I've been battling bronchitis for the past six weeks. To know that I was still able to score well even though I wasn't 100 percent physically was a nice boost. I'm on some antibiotics now, so I'll be much better for next week's tournament.

Last year I felt like I had to play my best golf to even be close to the top 20, and now I'm a lot more comfortable with my name being on the top of the leaderboard more often.

It takes time to develop that mentally. Seeing your name up on the big lights is not something that comes naturally, so I'm getting used to that, but I've become much better dealing with it.

This past week at the AT&T I had a great time playing with my amateur partner, Jim Rohr, who is the CEO of PNC Bank in Pittsburgh.

We were leading the tournament after two days and ended up finishing third. It was quite a thrill for both of us to be in contention as team. Ironically, Jim is the younger brother of Thom Rohr, who is President of the Waikoloa Land Company, one of my sponsors.

I've got to tell you about the atmosphere Saturday at Pebble Beach. The electricity on the golf course is pretty unique and special. Since there was a full field of movie stars and celebrities, there is a tremendous amount of crowd participation involved, so when you make a birdie the crowd goes crazy.

To the normal PGA Tour pro, that means understanding that the round was going to be over 6 hours long, and that you have to stay mentally focused for quite a long time.

When it's all said and done it's a fun tournament. And of course, it doesn't hurt when you have Pebble Beach and the ocean to distract you every once in a while.

I'm very optimistic going to Mexico next week to play in the Mayakoba Golf Classic. I had a great tournament there last year and my wife and I love to get involved with the local Mayan culture when we're down there, as it's one of our favorite stops of the year. And yes, I'll be bringing my fins and doing some body surfing in the water!

Mahalo,

Parker

Parker McLachlin can be reached at www.parkermclachlin.com