On the Green

PLPL

A Perfect Fit

by Helen Ross

Harold Varner has a lot of great memories of Pinehurst.

Competing in the Donald Ross Junior when he was a kid. Bringing friends from Charlotte to play a round, then hitting the 19th hole and talking golf when he got older. Shoot, he can even joke about the time he discovered he was allergic to shellfish after a meal he ate in Pinehurst.

And on a warm September afternoon earlier this year, the PGA Tour veteran returned the favor as he held a clinic for a group of about 50 inquisitive kids and their parents at the Country Club of North Carolina.

Varner wasn’t there to dazzle them with big drives and pinpoint irons, though. He wanted to talk with the youngsters—“They do enough listening in school,” he said—just like so many people had opened up to him as he was growing up.

No question was off limits for the gregarious Varner. Not even when one of the kids asked how many shoes he owned. For the record, it’s about 300, but considering he’s a Jordan brand ambassador that’s really nothing out of the ordinary.

Yes, that Jordan. Michael Jordan. Varner has the ear of Tiger Woods, too, after finding him in the locker room one day and boldly asking him, “Dude, when are we going to play?”

“It worked out and he’s been incredible, just when I need to ask him something, responding, not always timely, but he responds,” Varner says. “So, all of a sudden just hoping he’s healthy, you know, I guess we’ve been hoping for that for a while now.”

Varner has carved out a solid career on the PGA Tour, making the FedExCup Playoffs the last six years and earning more than $8 million. The first win has proven elusive, but the affable 31-year-old knows better than to obsess over it.

“I need to win anything,” Varner said, joking with reporters before the clinic. “I didn’t even win the little match I played today.

“Yeah, winning’s the most important thing, but I’ve been around two winners that have won a lot—MJ and Tiger— and I find it weird that they don’t talk about winning. So maybe I should just focus on getting better. They talk about getting better, the process. They’re big about focusing on the present. The fundamentals. They’ve been really good to me, so yeah, it’s been awesome.”

As Varner entertained the kids with stories about golf

Photo courtesy of Al Van Vliet, CCNC

and life, Mike Rogers looked on proudly. The CCNC member and East Carolina booster first met Varner when he was playing golf for the Pirates, and a friendship quickly developed. They played golf together and tailgated together and, most importantly, talked about how to make an impact on others.

“When I first got to know him or meet him, I thought there’s really something special here,” Rogers said. “I think the quality of the person, the golf, you thought, well, there’s a lot of great players, but he’s got something extra. And then I saw this will to succeed.

“I saw this positive attitude and everything about his approach was so purposeful. … We just became friends, and I gave him thoughts about life and how to progress as a person, how to hopefully be successful in every step of the way.”

Rogers also noticed how people gravitated to Varner. So, he introduced him to Tom Beddow, who is president of CCNC, and suggested he would make a good ambassador for the club. The Board of Directors agreed, and the partnership, the club’s first, was announced last January.

“He sees the good in people,” Rogers said. “He knows that people, if you give a hand to them, they can make something of it. I’ve had some business success and I’ve

never been around a more positive, purposeful person than Harold.”

The September clinic was part of a larger effort to raise funds for the HVIII Foundation, which aims to give children affordable access to sports, and the CCNC Foundation, most specifically, its employee emergency fund. Earlier in the day, Varner played golf with several donors, and he was the featured guest at a reception at the club, which is coming off a highly successful staging of the U.S. Junior Amateur, that night.

Varner was born in Akron, Ohio but moved to Gastonia when he was 6 years old. He is passionate about affordable access because he knows first-hand the impact it can have. He did not come from wealth, with the notable exception of the treasure of his close-knit family.

But his parents always managed to find $100 each summer so he could play golf at Gaston Municipal Golf Course where he learned life lessons—as well as the game—that stay with him to this day.

So, his Foundation has partnered with Youth On Course, a non-profit that created relationships with more than 1,400 courses in the U.S. and Canada so kids aged 6–18 can walk and play 18 holes for only $5. Fifty of those courses happen to be in the Carolinas.

“We believe in him, and we’re so delighted to have him as an ambassador for our club,” Rogers said. “Our mission about helping grow the game of golf and our support of amateur golf tournaments, which we’ve had his help in in so many ways, just recognizing what we’re trying to do as a club. It was really a perfect fit.”PL

Helen Ross is a freelance golf writer who spent 20 years working for the PGA Tour and 18 more at the Greensboro News & Record. A UNC-Chapel Hill graduate, she has won multiple awards from the Golf Writers Association of America.

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