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Harold Varner III: "I am not Tiger Woods II"

5th December, 2015
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Tiger Woods on the course. (Keith Allison/Flickr - CC BY-SA 2.0)
Expert
5th December, 2015
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Harold Varner III is on the brink of a career-defining tournament win at the Australian PGA at Royal Pines.

The 25-year-old American shares the lead with two South Africans Dylan Frittelli and Zander Lombard at 3-under – two to the good of Australian Nathan Holman.

But it’s Varner who is the centre of attention as the first African-American to secure his USPGA card from the Web.com Tour.

First and foremost it’s his distance off the tee that commands attention for a pocket rocket of 175cm and just 77kgs who pounds out his drives an average 315.5 yards, more than Bubba Watson’s 314.7, Dustin Johnson’s 311 and Rory McIlroy’s 310.7

But he doesn’t want to be called the next Tiger Woods, “No disrespect to Tiger, but I just want to be me”.

The 25-year-old Varner wants golf fans to treat him like a golfer and leave the colour question well alone.

“I get tired of well-meaning people saying Varner is the only black kid out there on tour.”

“Why can’t I just be a kid?,” questions Varner.

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So ‘the kid’ is the one to beat at the demanding Royal Pines course today.

His flawless six-birdie 66 yesterday shot him 27 spots up the leaderboard after earlier rounds of 74 and 73.

Frittelli and Lombard both carded three birdies and two bogeys in their 71s, but there’s precious little experience between the three leaders, so it will be interesting to see how they handle the pressure.

That factor alone brings Swede David Lingmerth back into calculations, even though he’s four shots adrift.

He won his first USPGA tournament this year, and it was a big one – the Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Invitational at Muirfield Village – beating Justin Rose in a play-off.

Yesterday Lingmerth was travelling very smoothly on top of the leaderboard until two double bogeys struck his card at 10 and 13.

Two other Australians are having a good tournament – Nathan Holman and Matthew Millar.

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Holman double bogeyed the first yesterday,but then peeled off six birdies and just two bogeys for his 70.

Millar, who is more a teacher these days than a tournament player, had his worst round yesterday with five bogeys and just two birdies. But he was a model of consistency over the first 36 holes when the weather was at its worst.

And there’s the vastly-experienced 44-year-old Australian leftie Richard Green who once he has a sniff of victory is hard to beat.

Green’s four shots off the pace at 1-over, but if Mother Nature plays ugly games today, he will be right in the thick of it.

But all things being equal, the Australian PGA will be Harold Varner III’s to lose.

He’s one really exciting kid.

Leaderboard after 54 holes
3-under – Harold Varner 111 74 73 66, Dylan Frittelli 70 72 71, Zander Lombard 67 75 71.

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1-under – Nathan Holman 77 68 70.

Even – David Lingmerth 77 68 70, Matthew Millar 72 70 74.

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