"Kill or be killed" - Harold Varner III opens up on the difficulty level on LIV Golf, compares it with PGA Tour
Harold Varner III joined LIV Golf more than a year back in 2022 having enjoyed decent success on the PGA and Asian Tours. He was once ranked 35th in the Official World Golf Rankings.
After joining LIV Golf, Varner has enjoyed some excellent results. Last year, he finished seventh playing for the RangeGoats GC. He also emerged victorious in the 2023 LIV Golf Washington DC.
This year, he is playing for 4Aces GC and is in the 38th position.
Harold Varner III has thus experienced both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. In a recent interview with Jerry Foltz and Su-Ann Heng on the Fairway to Heaven podcast, he opened up about the difficulty level in LIV Golf in comparison to the PGA Tour. Varner said:
"I think the level of play for me on the PGA Tour, I felt as if you get in the mix, out here (on LIV Golf), if you don't come out here and you don't shoot the grass off for the first day, you're not winning. So for me, I developed, like, 'Kill or be killed.'"
He added that in LIV Golf, players have to secure birdies and don't have the luxury of waiting for 50 more holes to improve. Varner noted that there wasn't much time to strategize and plan each move on the course:
"You just don't have enough golf to be like I plot my way around here. So that's bogey, like let's get on it."
Harold Varner III feels the PGA Tour was comparatively easier than the LIV Golf
Harold Varner III also talked about the conduct of play on the PGA Tour and how a gradual momentum is built over successive tournaments. Varner said:
"And when you're on Tour, you're like, 'Hey I'm playing four tournaments in a row, I'm going to cruise into it, I haven't been playing much that first tournament,' you're like 'Alright cool, I made the cut that's a positive.
"(In) the next one, you're like 'Alright, I'm warmed up, I saw my coaches, I did this. Next thing, you're in the third week, you're like 'This is it.' Alright cool bud, you're going to play two weeks, you're about to get four weeks off now's the time."
Harold Varner III is currently competing at LIV Golf Adelaide at the Grange Golf Club from April 26 to 28.
At the beginning of the podcast, the hosts picked their favourites for Adelaide. Jerry Foltz picked Richard Bland while Su-Ann Heng went with Martin Keymar. Bland was positioned at T16 and Keymar was at T35 at the end of the first round.
Varner was positioned at T40 with even par. He shares the position with Dustin Johnson, David Puig, Ian Poulter, Adrian Meronk, and Kieran Vincent.
At the top of the leaderboard is Jinichiro Kozuma of Iron Heads GC with a score of 9 under par.