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'Best attitude on Tour': Harold Varner III carries fan favorite potential to Masters debut

Harold Varner III hits out of a bunker on No. 2 during Wednesday's practice round at Augusta National Golf Club. Varner will tee it up in his first Masters Tournament this week. Katie Goodale-Augusta Chronicle/USA TODAY Network
Harold Varner III hits out of a bunker on No. 2 during Wednesday's practice round at Augusta National Golf Club. Varner will tee it up in his first Masters Tournament this week. Katie Goodale-Augusta Chronicle/USA TODAY Network

In the first tournament of his freshman year at East Carolina, Harold Varner III and four teammates played 36 holes in sweltering early September heat. After the marathon day, they rode in a van to a local steakhouse for a post-round meal. The five golfers were exhausted, physically spent and mentally weary.

Varner broke the silence.

“I don’t know what was wrong with y’all out there today,” then-ECU coach Press McPhaul recalls his freshman saying that day in South Carolina. “Y’all looked like y’all were about to die out there. I don’t know why you looked like that. I was just out there playing the game that I love and loving every minute of it.”

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“He viewed a 36-hole day in blistering weather with four teammates as fun. Most people see it as a bad thing and he saw it as an opportunity,” McPhaul said. “If he’s got a secret sauce, that’s it.”

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That attitude propelled Varner through four solid years at ECU and sustained through the mini-tours, two years on the Korn Ferry Tour and now into his sixth season on the PGA Tour, where he’s earned more than $8 million in 165 tournaments.

“It’s my journey,” Varner said. “You compare it to everyone else’s journey, like people do on social media, this guy did that, this guy did that, I’ve just always been like this is what I’m going to do. I can control that and do X, Y, Z. I’ve met the mark every time and just have to learn how to win out here and that’s going to come.”

The next step began this week at Augusta National Golf Club, with the 31-year-old North Carolinian’s first Masters Tournament.

During a Monday practice round, Varner hugged friends in the gallery, shared laughs with 2020 Masters champion Dustin Johnson, exuding a joyful spirit. A patron, after watching the group interact on the 15th tee, said to his friends: “I think I’m rooting for Varner this week.”

Perspective is the root of Varner’s outlook on golf and life.

“At the end of the day no one is going to die out here. No one is out to get you. We’re obviously going to compete but I’m going to enjoy every second of it,” Varner said Wednesday. “If you can control the things you can control, your attitude is the easiest, you just have an advantage, especially out here because it’s just hard. You’re going to get into some places where you can’t make birdie and you’re going to have to play differently.”

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Varner earned this invitation by climbing to No. 40 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He won the Saudi International in February, draining a 92-foot eagle putt on the 72nd hole for a one-shot margin over Bubba Watson and sealed his spot in the field with a sixth-place finish at the Players Championship last month.

He has a 69.71 scoring average on the PGA Tour this season, recording five top-25s in 11 events.

John Maginnes, another former ECU golfer and PGA Tour player, now spends 30 weeks a year walking alongside the best players in the world as an analyst for the ESPN Plus online platform and major championship radio broadcasts. He’s followed his fellow Pirate’s progress each step of the way, interacting with him after successful tournaments and disastrous final rounds.

“He has the best attitude of anybody on Tour. It’s not even close. I don’t know who is second,” Maginnes said. “I don’t know that there’s anybody out there having more fun than him. He’s just gotten better every year. He’s the right kind of confident and a better person than he is a golfer.”

Harold Varner III putts on the No. 2 green during Tuesday's practice round of the Masters. Kyle Terada-Augusta Chronicle/USA TODAY Network
Harold Varner III putts on the No. 2 green during Tuesday's practice round of the Masters. Kyle Terada-Augusta Chronicle/USA TODAY Network

Or put another way, if you don’t feel better after hanging around Varner, that’s probably your problem.

Maginnes feels confident Varner, who also won the 2016 Australian PGA, will win a PGA Tour event sooner than later. And when he does, it will be popular in the locker room and beyond.

Varner credits his parents, McPhaul and Bruce Sudderth, a Carolinas Hall of Fame PGA professional from his hometown of Gastonia, for having the greatest influence on his life.

“They’ve instilled in me how to be a professional,” Varner said. “And you don’t understand how important that is until you get out here.”

McPhaul, now the coach at N.C. State, saw something special from the outset. The raw power and “nose for the hole” were obvious. He played golf with a positive attacking mentality, unafraid to shoot a low score, looking at each swing as an opportunity to make a shot rather than lose a stroke.

“One of the things that’s fun about coaching is, kids will come in and get started and let you in on their dreams a little bit,” McPhaul said. “Harold was never scared to dream from the beginning. Just inclusion in this field alone is a dream accomplished.”

McPhaul will follow along online this weekend as his team competes in a tournament on their home course in Raleigh.

Varner welcomed his former college roommates in town earlier in the week, and his wife, Amanda and 6-month-old son Liam arrived Wednesday.

Earning this invitation for the first time is a milestone for any golfer.

“In North Carolina this is gold, when people travel from afar this is what they see, but in North Carolina you run into people, whether they’re members, or they’ve been coming here their whole life,” Varner III said. “It’s been ideal. I wanted to be top 50 in the world, you just want to be the best player you can be and I feel like my game is headed in the right direction.”

Varner ranks 63rd on the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and 22nd Around-the-Green, possessing the firepower to rank 11th in birdie average at 4.58 per round. The tee shots at Augusta National fit his eye during his first round on the famous course last week and, while he expects to be nervous on the first tee at 1:08 p.m. Thursday, he’s confident entering his Masters debut.

“If you get better, those other things will fall into place. I’m super fortunate for those things to fall into place and it’s literally all I’ve ever wanted to do. I want to be one of the best players in the world and I’m just chipping away,” Varner III said.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Harold Varner's attitude, game gain attention before first Masters