Varner coleads as Tour returns
The PGA Tour returned with no fans Thursday. A day that included a moment of silence for George Floyd, concluded with one of the Tour’s few black players Harold Varner III (at left, with Zac Blair), tied for the lead. Varner and Justin Rose each shot 7underpar 63 at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.
FORT WORTH, Texas — The start was even more quiet than usual for a Thursday morning on the PGA Tour, only the silence never left over the next 12 hours as golf was back to business at the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club.
Sung Kang made a holeinone on the 13th hole and didn’t realize it until he was 50 yards from the green.
“I’m like, ‘Wow, it’s in the hole.’ It wasn’t really crazy. Nobody was really up there, only a few people out there just clapping a little bit,” Kang said. “I still appreciated it, though.”
Phil Mickelson made a birdie and instinctively pinched the brim of his cap to acknowledge a crowd that wasn’t there.
Ryan Palmer, a Colonial member who raised money for COVID19 relief efforts during the shutdown, hit the first official shot on the PGA Tour in three months. Those gathered around the first tee could barely hear him announced. The starter was wearing a mask, and his voice competed with the hum of a generator behind the ninth green.
Quiet as it was, Colonial came to a standstill at 8:46 a.m. when everyone on the course honored a moment of silence for the death of George Floyd and the outrage it has sparked worldwide on racial injustice.
It was a most unusual round of golf. But it was golf.
Justin Rose and Harold Varner shared the lead at 7underpar 63. Cal alum Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas were among those a stroke back. Tom Lehman, a 61yearold former champion at Colonial, got in on the act with a 65.
Varner is one of four players of black heritage with full PGA Tour status, and he delivered the strongest words last week in a social media post.
And then he found himself atop the leaderboard with a round so clean he putted for birdie on every hole.
“If I’m thinking about winning a golf tournament right now, I’ve probably lost it,” Varner said. “Yeah, I know what’s going on, but when I’m on the golf course, I’m trying to play well. The reason I have a platform is because I’m really good at golf. I just need to focus on that.”
Conditions were ripe for good scores with no cheers.
“It kind of feels like a competitive practice round,” said Rose, who won at Colonial two years ago. “But obviously, I think we all know what’s on the line.”