Harold

Varner III

The young Chilean currently ranks 19th in the OWGR, slightly down from his best of 15th following the Masters this spring. He’s played four full seasons on the PGA TOUR and made it to East Lake in each of the last three. He’s piled up 10 starts in major championships but never finished better than T23 in any of those starts. His commitment to LIV will knock him out of the Presidents Cup with Cameron Smith also making the jump today, removing two of the International team qualifiers. Playing in this week’s Boston event will result in a PGA TOUR suspension for both and last week’s TOUR Championship was the last we’ll see of them on the PGA TOUR circuit, at least for the foreseeable future. Other players to make the jump to LIV Golf this week include Marc Leishman, Anirban Lahiri, Harold Varner III, and Cameron Tringale.

HV3 arrived off back-to-back missed cuts, sitting in 65th in the FedExCup race. It would be easy to pack it in for the season, but the ECU product had other plans. He traveled to see his swing coach, Butch Harmon last week, “I hit a lot of golf balls, probably the most golf balls I’ve hit in a long time. I hate hitting golf balls... I was doing something that actually I felt like I’ve never done, but it is what it is. I know where the golf ball is going right now, have a pretty good idea, and I’m pretty determined to make it to East Lake, and there’s only one way to get there, and that’s to play well.” That session with Butch paid off today as he walked off the course ranked 2nd in strokes gained off-the-tee and 2nd in strokes gained approach.

HV3 was last seen at the Travelers Championship posting a T43 finish. It was nothing to write home about but a nice rebound after a missed cut at Brookline. He is qualified to play in next week’s Open Championship so we will presumably see him return to action next week at St. Andrews. Varner is currently 52nd in the FedExCup race with nine top 25s in 19 events played.

Clark fired his 63 from the early wave while Varner III tossed his together from the late wave, posting the best lap among the later starters, fueled by a birdie-birdie-eagle run around the turn. On seven (of 13) fairways and 10 greens in regulation, he posted 0.272 SG: Off-the-Tee, 1.826 SG: Approach, 0.988 SG: Around, and 3.357 SG: Putting with 25 total putts, buoyed by four par-savers from between six and 17 feet. The 31-year-old’s lone bogey was a 5 at 12 (failed scramble), camouflaged by four birdies at 3, 4 (from 22'11"), 9 and 10 (hole-out from 38'1" away), and an eagle-3 at 11 from 47'9". This is his sixth time this season in 17 events that he’s in the top 10 after 18 holes, second straight after the Charles Schwab two weeks ago, where he was an 18-hole co-leader before fading to T27 (66-68-68-78). See link below to post-round comments.

The 31-year-old, eyeing a first TOUR title in 182 events, will be in the penultimate pairing on Sunday with Scott Stallings after navigating one of only two bogey-free laps on Saturday along with Brendon Todd (65). Paired with past champ Jordan Spieth (70), he penciled two birdies at holes 1 and 10 (hole-out 3 from a greenside bunker) on seven (of 14) fairways and 11 greens in regulation, losing 0.310 strokes on approach but gaining 0.332 off-the-tee, 1.820 around and 0.767 on-the-green. The East Carolina alum is in the top 10 at the three-quarter pole for a sixth time this season in 16 events, third in his last four, including at the RBC Heritage three starts ago, where he was the 54-hole leader by one and closed with 1-under 70 for a season-best T3. He’s on the plus-side in all stroked gained stats, including 8th-ranked OTT (2.173), 6th ARG (3.432) and 14th SGP (2.682). See link below to post-round comments.

The 31-year-old, who is eyeing a first TOUR victory in 182 events, will be in the sixth-to-last pairing in R3 with past champ and Texan Jordan Spieth, scheduled for 1:10 pm local (link to tee times below). After kicking off with 66 (1 eagle-3, 6 birdies, 4 bogeys) he co-led with seven others, but is now chasing tri-leaders Scott Stallings (64), Beau Hossler (65) and Scottie Scheffler (65) after mustering three circles against one square on Friday. The East Carolina alum landed seven (of 14) fairways and 12 greens in regulation, losing 0.265 strokes on approach but gaining 0.788 off-the-tee, 0.572 around-the-green and 0.728 on-the-green, converting two scoring tries from between nine and 14 feet. At the halfway pole, he’s in positive territory in all strokes gained metrics, highlighted by a 7th OTT (1.841) and lowlighted by a 32nd APP (1.238).

HV3 got the job done in a variety of ways today as he walked off the course gaining more than a stroke over the field in all four sub-categories of strokes gained. He signed a colorful scorecard that included a pair of scoring trains. The first was a birdie train that started at the second hole and included three straight converted from inside of six feet. The second train was more notable as it featured a chip-in at the 10th, an eagle at the 11th after stuffing his approach from outside of 300 yards, and a 10-footer at the 12th. Overall, he circled six birdies and the eagle to offset a four-pack of bogeys. This isn’t his first fast start at Colonial CC as Varner III was also the first-round co-leader during the 2020 edition of this event, where he’d eventually go on to finish T19. He’s posted top 20s after all three of his previous first-round leads/co-leads but a T7 at the 2020 Wyndham Championship is his best finish of the bunch so he’s yet to contend from wire-to-wire.

Watson, who won this event in a playoff in 2011, has played in all five Zurich’s as a team event and bags a third top 10, second straight after T8 last year with Scottie Scheffler. For Varner III, he’s also recorded a top 10 (T8) when played as an individual event, the 2016 edition which was reduced to 54 holes, and has also played the team event five times but this was his first time making the weekend. The tandem, in their inaugural as teammates, signed for rounds of 62-71-64-68, with today’s lap featuring five birdies versus one bogey, highlighted by a 24'5" birdie-4 at hole 2 (by Varner). Watson bags his first top 10 of the season in seven events, while Varner bags his third top 10 in 14 events, second consecutive after a T3 at last week’s RBC Heritage as the 54-hole leader by one.

To say this team didn’t have their best stuff today would be an understatement. Sure, the task was tougher as they moved from four-ball to foursomes, but HV3 and Bubba gave themselves just two scoring chances from inside of 10 feet today. The highlight of their round was a 28'5" eagle bomb at the par-5 second, poured home by Watson. After an opening 62, this team will be happy to forget about today as they turn their attention back toward four-ball on Saturday.

The 31-year-old, who drops to 0-for-2 as a 54-hole leader/co-leader, was vying for his first PGA TOUR title in 179 events but settles for a third podium, coming up one swing shy of a 2-man playoff involving eventual champ Jordan Spieth (66). After kicking off with 67-72 and week-tying-low 63, he led by one over three players, three clear of Spieth, and mustered six (of 14) fairways and hit 13 greens in regulation, The East Carolina alum and RBC ambassador went out in 1-under (2 birdies, 1 bogey) before ending with nine pars, his closest birdie look on the inward half being 21'2" at the par-3 16th. This was his seventh Heritage and second top 10, second straight after a career-best T2 last year, his second top 10 of the season in 13 starts, first since T6 at THE PLAYERS four starts ago, and his first top-3 finish since here last year. For the festivities, the North Carolina resident totaled 19 birdies versus three bogeys and two doubles, and ranked 3rd SG: Approach (8.021) and 7th SG: Putting (5.370), including a 0.767 SGP on Sunday, though 55th in SG: Off-the-Tee (-1.537) and 64th SG: Around (-2.057), lowlighted by a -1.759 ARG in the finale.