MUST READ: Harold Varner III on how to grow the game of golf
Although one of the smaller players on the PGA Tour, Harold Varner III is one of the longer hitters and also packs a punch with the pen.
Australian PGA Championship winner and PGA Tour player Harold Varner III has written a great piece in The Players Tribune that you simply must read.
Varner lays out the fact very early int he article – in the fact on the first line – that he is black. He then goes on to outline his path to golf and the attention from the media after grabbing his first professional victory at the Australian PGA Championship on the Gold Coast last year.
On the other hand, from when I first started playing golf at a high level, I was seen as the good black golfer — not just a good golfer. Even though my primary goal is to be the best golfer on the PGA Tour, and even though I have the same goals as any of the top players, I’m often labeled as that guy. You know … the black guy who isn’t Tiger. Trust me, I hear it.
But out here on Tour, I want to be known as a winner. After I won the Australian PGA Championship this December to capture my first professional victory, that’s how the Australian media treated me.
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I noticed real quick that the tone in the Australian media was different from anything I had ever encountered in America. They saw me as the goofy dude who worked his ass off to win one of their most prestigious tournaments … not someone who could be used to create a race discussion.
Head over to The Players Tribune and read the whole article. And then start following Harold Varner III on Twitter. He’s great value and great for golf.