Harold Varner, ‘super proud’ Gastonia golfer, could use a Jumpman push at Wells Fargo
The Jumpman logo isn’t usually attached to the 5-foot-9 guys.
Then again, Gastonia’s Harold Varner III isn’t your typical 5-9 athlete.
Varner, a former golf star at East Carolina, is in this week’s field at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club. He’s wearing Jordan Brand clothing, in part for his connection to Charlotte Hornets president Fred Whitfield.
Varner played Whitfield’s annual charity tournament a few years ago and the two stayed in touch. Home from the tour one Christmas, he took up Whitfield’s invitation to attend a Hornets game. One thing led to another and now Varner is a Jordan Brand endorser.
“Last summer, I spoke to the kids for his foundation,” Varner said of Whitfield, a former Jordan Brand executive. “About six months later he’s like, ‘Hey, my boss is going to be texting you soon.’”
The boss – Hornets owner and basketball icon Michael Jordan (a golf junkie) – is the Jumpman logo, of course. So, a nice connection for a North Carolina guy looking to sustain his tour career.
Things haven’t been great lately for Varner, on the PGA Tour since 2012. Ranked 197th in the world, he’s missed the cut in his past four tournaments.
“I think it’s hard to get out of a slump sometimes, just finding your way (and) figuring it out,” Varner said Wednesday, a day before he shot a 1-under-par 72 to place 62nd in Thursday’s first round. “When you’re a kid and playing bad, you could spend all day figuring it out. Now, you’ve got to do the same thing, but also manage the other stuff (the business of golf) on the side. I’m not really good at that.
“But when you’re playing good, it’s easy to manage time, so let’s just start playing good.”
What’s been off?
“I think obviously the swing wasn’t great, but there’s a lot of things that made that not great,” Varner said.
“I’m just not trying to think about it. … I’m driving it well, putting it well (and) I think I have a good attitude. I don’t really know what more I need.”
Varner, 27, isn’t just from Gastonia, he’s of Gastonia. He might travel the world now, but he’s still deeply tied – and deeply proud – of the town across the Catawba River from Charlotte. He’s certainly not the first world-class athlete from Gastonia (the NBA’s James Worthy, Sleepy Floyd and now Hassan Whiteside), but he wants to be remembered as part of the town’s culture.
“It’s my favorite place in the world,” Varner said. “That’s a little biased, but yeah, I think it takes a village to raise a kid and that place has done me well, so I’m super proud to be from there.”
Probably because Varner is African-American, he is constantly asked about Tiger Woods. He fields the questions with good humor (he joked about Woods not signing his hat once when he was a fan: “That stinks.”)
It’s clear he’d just as soon get past the “what does one black golfer think about another black golfer” queries.
“I mean, I get he’s black,” Varner said, “but if he was green, I’d say, ‘How about Tiger, dude!’
“That’s just how I was raised, I don’t know. But he’s really good!”
This story was originally published May 2, 2018 at 10:15 PM with the headline "Harold Varner, ‘super proud’ Gastonia golfer, could use a Jumpman push at Wells Fargo."