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GREENSBORO — On an otherwise hushed opening Thursday around the Wyndham Championship, a couple of tournament volunteer workers couldn’t help but applaud and congratulate Harold Varner III as he walked of the 18th green.
They broke the quiet for good reason.
Varner, the Gastonia native and former East Carolina standout, just had applied the finishing touches to a career-best round of 8-under-par 62 on Thursday to zoom atop the leader board at Sedgefield Country Club, where spectators aren’t permitted as part of coronavirus precautions.
“I hit it really well, just capitalized on the chances I got,” he said. “I had a lot of looks and that’s all you’re trying to do out here since you’ve got to shoot so low (to get in contention).”
Two days before his 30th birthday, Varner played bogey-free golf in grabbing the Wyndham lead. That sense of spotlessness was preserved by a two-putt from the back of the No. 18 green, a downhill challenge measuring about 65 feet.
In a round powered by eight birdies, that par save proved just as profitable to Varner.
“The biggest thing is the two-putt on 18,” he said, “just not giving it away when you've worked that hard.”
Varner played 4-under on each side, and birdied six of his first 11 holes. The opportunity to 60 entered the mix when he birdied the par-5 15th hole to get to 8-under on the round, but Varner said the thought of shooting 59 — one of the sport’s magic number — didn’t occur to him.
“No, I didn’t think about it at all,” he said. “Just trying to birdie every hole. You can go get it out here with the scoring, so I just knew that the gas pedal’s on the right.”
By mid-afternoon here, Varner led Roger Sloan by two strokes. Sloan’s hot start was fueled by a run of six birdies across his first eight holes.
Wesley Bryan and Brian Harman carded a pair of 5-under 65s. Former Wyndham champion Webb Simpson, the Raleigh native and former Wake Forest standout, was among a group of six players to shoot 4-under 66.
Simpson recovered from a double bogey on the par-4 13th hole, during which his tee shot went out of bounds and he lost his ball, to birdie three of his next five holes. His group started on the back nine.
“It’s a golf course where you can make a lot of birdies,” Simpson said, “so as hard as it is in the moment, you’ve just got to stay patient and I did that. I knew I had (No. ) 15 coming up, birdie opportunities at (Nos.) 16 and 17. I was able to get those and turned in 1-under after being 2-over, so that was kind of a good hanging in there for me.”
This article originally appeared on Times-News: East Carolina alum Varner starts hot at Wyndham Championship
