Thing weren’t going well for unheralded Harold Varner III on a windy Sunday in Saudi Arabia.
With the breeze picking up late in the day, pushing 25-30 miles per hour, Varner saw a two-shot lead vanish when he made double-bogey at the 14th then a bogey at the 16th at Royal Greens to fall out of the lead.
To make matters worse, up ahead, Bubba Watson had just birdied the short par four 17th then hit a monster drive at the par five 18th, leaving himself just 140 yards for his second. His wedge approach left him 15 feet for eagle and the two-time Masters champion holed it for a closing 64 and a 12-under par total, two clear of Varner, who went to the 17th tee trailing Bubba.
Varner didn’t let his mistakes stop him. His drive at 17 finished in a greenside bunker and he got up-and-down for birdie to trail by only a shot heading for the downwind 18th. There Varner missed his drive well right but it was dry. His approach was just short of the front of the green, leaving himself some 92-feet to try and negotiate a two-putt birdie to face Watson in a playoff.
Varner, an East Carolina graduate, had to go up a steep ridge then down to the hole. His putt slowed as it reached the peak, but it had enough on it to start tracking toward the hole. For what seemed like an eternity to Varner, the ball slowly inched its way toward the cup, nearly stopped on the lip but fell into the hole for eagle-three and victory for Varner — his first win since the 2016 Australian PGA.
His closing 69 was good enough to edge Watson and put a cool million dollars in Varner’s pocket.
Watson ran from the scorer’s room down to the 18th to congratulate Varner. “He’s a dear friend of mine. He’s a guy I truly love,” Watson said. “He’s a guy that I want to help. He’s new — when I say new, we know Harold, but it took me — it was five years until I won my first. So, this is a guy that’s just starting to play better and better each year. We see his name a little bit more. He’s getting comfortable.
“I’m not mad at him for beating me. I’m happy for him. He’s a dear friend of mine, and I applaud him. I love seeing that. I cheer for him,” added Watson.
A huge roar went up for Varner as he holed that eagle putt for the win. At least VIPs gathered in the ritzy hospitality suite overlooking 18 because there was hardly a person on the golf course all week.
Didn’t bother Varner.
“Awesome. Still – it’s been pretty crazy since it happened,” said Varner, who is still looking for his first PGA Tour win. “I’m just trying to take it in. Winning just never gets old. I just know that there’s been times where it just didn’t go my way and today it did. I’m super thrilled not just for myself, but everyone that’s either on my team or in my corner.
“They know who they are so I don’t have to thank them. They know who they are. My mom’s already called. Yeah, I’m pumped.”
Saudi International Scoreboard:
Leona Macguire Cruises, Gets First LPGA Tour Victory At Drive-On:
That phrase — It’s Not A Matter Of If, But When — totally applied to Leona Maguire on the LPGA Tour.
The “When” came on a cool Saturday in Ft. Myers at the Drive-On championship where she closed with a nice five-under par 67 for her first Tour win.
She finished with an 18-under par total of 198, best of her career and was three shots clear of 11-time winner Lexi Thompson, whose closing 65 got her to 15-under and solo second.
Maguire began the final round tied with Marina Alex. Maguire birdied two of the last three holes on the front nine to make the turn in two-under then closed with a 33 over her final nine holes.
“Hasn’t really sunk in yet. It’s a bit surreal,” said Maguire, who became the first Irish player to win on the LPGA Tour. “It’s been a long time coming and I suppose you don’t know it’s going to happen until it actually does. Tried to just stay really patient today. Didn’t get ahead of myself. Wanted to go out and just shoot a number. Didn’t want anybody to have to hand it to me. I wanted to go out and win it myself and earn it. Yeah, just really proud of the way I played today.”
Sarah Schmelzel had her best round of the year — a closing 64 that got her to 14-under and earned her solo third.
The LPGA Tour will take the rest of February off. Next event will be March 3 at the Women’s HSBC World Championship in Singapore.
Nicolai Hojgaard Wins In UAE:
The “other” Hojgaard twin, Nicolai, brother of Rasmus, won his second DP World (European Tour) title on Sunday in the UAE.
He was able to hold off Jordan Smith in a wild final round at the Ras al Khaimah Championship.
Nicolai was the 54-hole leader and actually blew a five-shot lead during the final round. He found himself two back of Smith on the final nine.
He bounced back however, with a birdie on 13 then an eagle on the 14th and he went back into the lead by two. He eventually closed with 68 and finished 24-under par for the week.
The win makes five combined victories for the Hojgaard twins. Rasmus has three.
He now has two DP World Tour crowns to his name following last year’s DS Automobiles Italian Open triumph, and sits just one win behind his twin brother Rasmus.
Smith, who had started the day six shots off the lead, finished alone in second on 20 under, three ahead of Li Haotong, Lukas Nemecz, Matthieu Pavon and Adrian Otaegui in a tie for third. Li’s bogey-free 63 saw him tie the course record at Al Hamra Golf Club.
One Comment
baxter cepeda
Watched the Saudi event all week. Harold won with that face melting putt on 18 to beat his good friend Bubba; but it was Harold 3 sticks sand game that really won it for him. Harold Varner III is an amazing sand player. Maybe it’s the sand hills of North Carolina.
Also watched the DP world tour event all week was which was also won in large part thanks to some jaw dropping shots from the desert by Nicolai Hojgaard.
This twin is the powerful one, intimidating power really, the kind where other players expect him to birdie all the par 6s and certain par 4 holes. He has a clutch putting stroke, and according to his brother is really good at moving forward during adversity, which he showed Sunday.
One tournament I didn’t want all week was the lpga tour and Leonas first win because it wasn’t televised. With all due respect to all the men’s tours, all fun tournaments, golf channel and nbc should have carved some time for the ladies on actual television. Super frustrating. Again, everyone on golf channel criticizes the Saudis in part for their treatment of women but air their tournament like 8 hours a day while basically putting one of those head coverings by shunning them to a web site.