However, there was no late-night celebration as he was one of a handful up at 5.15 am yesterday to get out to the course and play the last four holes of his third round before the final round began.
He finished at 11-under 273 to hold off the chasing trio of West Australian Stephen Leaney and New Zealanders Michael Campbell and Steve Alker.
They are the bare facts of a dramatic afternoon in which fortunes ebbed and flowed on the capricious nature of a gruelling links course made even more demanding by foul, swirling winds yesterday.
On Saturday, lashing rain made life a misery for the players, but Tiger Woods stepped up to the plate with a four-under 67 to give himself a slender lifeline.
He incredibly four-putted on the second to drop two shots, lost another shot on the fourth, and by then even an eagle on the 500m 12th was not enough to peg back the frontrunners.
At 3.40 pm, with no significant late run coming from down the field, the Big Four were juggling the title between themselves, all sitting at eight under turning for home. There were never more than two strokes separating them from that point on.
Parry made the first move, birdying the 10th, Leaney joined him a hole later, Campbell and Alker followed suit at the 12th to turn the tension up another notch.
Alker was the first to stumble, dropping a shot at 13, and while he picked that up at the 16th - and birdied the 18th - his challenge was effectively over.
Leaney, who had begun the round a shot clear at 10 under, stayed solid, but just could not press on as Campbell emerged as the most likely to succeed.
Successive birdies at 15 and 16 had the galleries roaring, and put him one shot clear of the redoubtable Parry.
But Parry, a multiple winner in Europe, Australia and Japan, and who once sat at No 13 in the world rankings, is a man with a well-deserved reputation of turning into a dog with a bone when he can sniff glory.
The title swung on the 404m par 17, whose statistics showed it to be the third-toughest hole on the course.
Parry, playing immediately in front of the other three, safely made par.
Campbell plonked his second shot into the stand. Taking a drop without penalty, he chipped to four feet from the hole, missed the putt, rushed his bogey coming back and headed for the 18th tee knowing he needed an eagle to catch Parry.
That was news to Parry, who actually thought he needed an eagle on 18 to make a playoff.
Campbell gave it everything. A superb second shot from 233 yards with what he termed a half three wood, left him a 15-foot putt, with Parry watching from the scorecard room.
"I thought, 'miss it'," Parry confessed. His day was complete as the putt to force a playoff slid agonisingly past the cup.
For Parry, a neighbour and occasional practice chum of Woods on their Isleworth estate in Florida and a highly experienced competitor, there was a self tutorial out of yesterday.
He thought Campbell was his only real challenger and was surprised to discover three players were on his tail coming down the 18th.
"I was really into my own game for a change. I suppose there's a lesson there - worry about yourself not anyone else."
He brought a new set of clubs to Paraparaumu Beach. "They arrived just before Christmas. I played eight holes, hit about 40 balls, so I'm pretty happy."
Parry has been a frequent visitor here since losing the New Zealand amateur title in a playoff 20 years ago, but his 19th career title was his first on this side of the ditch.
Just for the day, the course might justifiably have been rechristened Parryparryumu.
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