How one PGA Tour star blew up and cost himself a million dollars
Sometimes putting really sucks, just ask Harold Varner III.
Despite seeming to be in contention every week, Varner is still in search of his first win on the PGA Tour, but looked like he might finally be putting that to bed as he held a share of the lead with eight holes to play at the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Then HV3 reached the green on the par-4 12th, and let’s just say things started to get a little ugly…
After finding the greenside bunker, Varner pitched out to about 19-feet to leave himself with a par putt to maintain his tie for the lead with Scottie Scheffler. Unfortunately, the American was forced to wait for around 15-minutes with playing partner Scott Stallings requiring assistance from a rules official.
And in a classic case of “I hate having to wait”, Varner then capitulated on the 12th at Colonial, taking four stabs on the green to eventually card a triple-bogey. Here’s the painfully relatable moment in all its glory…
If that wasn’t excruciating enough, the trauma then persisted for Varner, as he responded to the horror show by putting his very next shot in the water to make a double bogey, before completing a nightmare hat-trick as he carded a second triple bogey on the par-4 14th after hitting it out of bounds.
Ouch.
The American eventually finished the final eight holes in 8-over par to drop to T27 for the tournament – a fall that cost him more than a million big ones in prize money.
“Messed around and got a triple double… wind was real today,” he said following the chaotic collapse.
Forever the class act, Varner stuck around despite the nightmare finish to sign autographs for fans as Sam Burns saw off Scottie Scheffler in a playoff to pick up his third victory of the season.
“I shot the same score hammered at my local course last week,” one recipient apparently joked as HV3 left the scene of the crime at Colonial.
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George Cooper
A golf fanatic his entire life, George Cooper is NCG's man for all goings-on at the top level of the game, whether it's the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, LPGA or LIV Golf. He also looks after NCG's Twitter and Facebook accounts. George is a member of Woburn, but is not friends with Ian Poulter.
