This one was a first in the history of East Carolina University.
Harold Varner III, the best Pirate golfer in the school’s history, had worked his way to five-under par after three rounds at the 101st PGA Championship and found himself eyeball-to-eyeball with now four-time major champion Brooks Koepka.
Varner said after a second straight 67 on Saturday that Bethpage Black required a lot of patience. “You have to take your time on every shot.”
Things started great for Varner on Sunday as he showed up dressed in ECU colors — purple and white. His opening drive was perfect and he stuck his second within four feet. He made that opening birdie and cut Koepka by two shots. Suddenly Varner was in the limelight.
Things fell apart after that. Quickly.
A par at the second was followed by back-to-back double bogeys and the ECU Pirate began his long walk down the plank.
Varner made the turn in 41 and spent the rest of the afternoon just trying to stay out of Koepka’s way.
After that opening birdie, Varner played the next 17 holes in 12-over par on a day when winds gusted to 35-miles per hour and wreaked havoc on everyone over the final nine holes.
In the end, Varner shot 71-67-67 then a gosh-awful 81. Still, he was all smiles, with the television guys declaring that Varner may have one of the best attitudes on the PGA Tour.
Varner, who has managed to make the FedEx Cup playoffs each of the past two years, could have used a high finish on Sunday but it simply wasn’t to be.
Varner fell 34 places and finished tied for 36th.
After the tough day, he kept his head up:
“I was super excited, man. It’s a great opportunity. I just don’t know how you can’t get up for that,” Varner said. “I just didn’t play very well. I didn’t do what I was supposed to do. But I’m excited I had the opportunity, and I’m excited to learn from it and get better.
“It’s hard, but I still had a good time. That’s kind of what you play for,” Varner went on. “So it’s all right. Obviously I’m a little pissed right now. You want to do well. I don’t know who else doesn’t. But I’m going to get a lot better from it.”
