RBC CANADIAN OPEN

June 9, 2022

Harold Varner

St. George's Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Harold, 65, excellent start. If we can get some comments on your round.

HAROLD VARNER III: It was an excellent start. No, I'm messing with you. It was good.

I hadn't seen the back side, so there's a couple lines I just wasn't totally comfortable with, and the rough's super thick. So it was a grind coming in. Overall, just a good start.

Q. Take us through the eagle on No. 11.

HAROLD VARNER III: Oh, yeah, that was awesome. I hit it down there. That was my first time playing it. Hit the fairway, and I hit it on the green. I was like this will be an easy birdie, just roll it up there, and it just snuck in there.

Obviously got the day going, where I want to be every day.

Q. Harold, welcome to Canada. Welcome back to Canada.

HAROLD VARNER III: It's good to be back.

Q. You had the low round of the afternoon. What do you think you saw out there that maybe the rest of the afternoon wave didn't see?

HAROLD VARNER III: I don't know. My job is just to play golf. I'm not really worried about anyone else. Obviously I knew you had to hit the fairway, and that's all I really focused on.

It got pretty windy out there, just hard to get it where you need to be to score. I really don't care about the other people that played in our wave.

Q. On that note, are you the sort that in the morning you're watching how the morning guys are doing and like trying to learn from what they're seeing, or you just take it when you're out there?

HAROLD VARNER III: I think you know what I was looking at this morning, what didn't happen to be anything about golf.

Not really. Slept in. Trying to think what I did. Looked at my calendar. Planned some awesome golf trips, that's about it. Nothing spectacular. Actually had breakfast with Tyrrell this morning. Yeah, it was great.

Q. Just wondering the exchange you had with Justin after Tyrrell made the bunker shot, and then Justin made the long birdie, and then you came up just short, what you guys said to each other.

HAROLD VARNER III: We were -- you just know how that works out whenever the other two guys hole it before you do, and you're sitting there, and the hole looks like it's even smaller now. You know, they knew what I was hinting at, and we just laughed. Tyrrell doesn't laugh a lot, so it was pretty funny to see him laugh. He's complaining the whole time, and then he holes it, so that just makes me laugh.

Just we had a good day. It was fun. I've played with both of them quite a bit. I like to have fun, keep it light. When you're in threesomes, it makes it easy. Especially if one guy's not having a good day, you can at least talk to the other guy.

Overall, we played pretty solid. Well, Tyrrell didn't, as you could tell.

Q. What did you see on your pitch shot out of the rough on 10 that you holed out?

HAROLD VARNER III: What's 10?

Q. The uphill green pitch shot rolled in for birdie.

HAROLD VARNER III: Oh, I didn't see anything. I knew I hit a good chip. It started rolling, and somehow it like side-doored into the hole. I was obviously super ecstatic. I like making birdies. I didn't have to putt.

Yeah, nothing crazy. I just couldn't believe it went that far right when it got on the green.

Q. You said you had breakfast with Tyrrell today. I know the memo came out about the suspensions with the players that went over to LIV. Did you guys talk about that at all, or have you talked to any players this morning about that memo that came out? Just your reaction on that memo.

HAROLD VARNER III: I think I've been talking about it for the last six months, just today it got a little bit more serious. I would like to keep that between the players that I've spoken to. Yeah, it's hard not to talk about it. You're talking about the future of golf, like how are you not going to talk about it? It's always on the media. Everyone's asking you about it.

I'm just sitting here just wondering was going to happen, how this is going to play out. I think it's wise to ask other people what they think. I think it would be stupid not to.

Q. What do you think about the suspensions that were handed out?

HAROLD VARNER III: I think they know what they're doing. That's not my place, but I think everyone will figure out how it's really going to play out about a year from now.