The Masters

Masters 2023: Harold Varner III, a LIV golfer, rails against LIV agenda: 'You didn't come here to f---ing grow the f---ing game'

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Christian Petersen

AUGUSTA, Ga. — If you were expecting shots fired between LIV and PGA Tour golfers this week at the Masters, you've been thoroughly disappointed. Things have been decidedly cordial on the hallowed grounds of Augusta National.

What none of us saw coming, however, were shots fired by a LIV golfer in the direction of . . . LIV Golf. Yes, you read that correctly.

In a lengthy interview with the Washington Post, Harold Varner III, a LIV golfer, railed against the "grow the game" agenda that LIV Golf and its CEO Greg Norman has been pushing since the Saudi-backed tour's inception. Varner, who has been up front about his financial motivation for making the jump to LIV since the start—to accumulate generational wealth—essentially told the Post's Kent Babb that the upstart circuit's stated ambitions for helping the game is a mere facade.

"They’re full of s---; they’re growing their pockets," Varner said of his fellow LIVers who toe the company line. "I tell them all the time, all of them: You didn’t come here to f---ing grow the f---ing game."

When Varner originally jumped from the PGA Tour to the LIV tour last August, he says LIV's public relations department sent him the same talking points all the other LIV players received. He was one of the few that ignored them entirely, saying it was simply "too good of a financial breakthrough" in a post to his Instagram account. He reiterated that in the Post interview.

"I play golf so I can change the direction of my family's life," said Varner, whose first son Liam will turn 2 next fall. "And that's it. No other reason."

As for whether or not things would be awkward this week between LIV players and PGA Tour players, Varner didn't hold back on that, either.

"These f---ers aren’t mad," he said. "They’re just mad that you’re f---ing with their money. I think some people are jealous, and that’s just the way it is."