Gavin Cooney reports from Augusta National Golf Club

LIV GOLF TOUR member Harold Varner III has delivered barbs not to players on the PGA Tour but instead to his own colleagues on the Saudi-backed breakaway, accusing them of being “full of shit” in saying their motivation for joining the tour was to grow the game. 

This week’s Masters is the first event of the year at which PGA and LIV tour players are competing against one another, though few sparks have flown between the rival camps thus far. Augusta National did not extend an invite to LIV CEO Greg Norman, saying his presence might overshadow the Masters, while tournament chairman Fred Ridley said there was no tension between the two camps at Tuesday night’s Champions Dinner. 

“The tone has been really good here this week. I’ve noticed the players are interacting. Last night at the Champions Dinner, I would not have known that anything was going on in the world of professional golf other than the norm.” 

And in a surprising turn of events, the most stinging criticism flying from a LIV player has been aimed at his fellow LIV players. 

In an interview with the Washington Post ahead of the Masters, Harold Varner III – who is one of 18 LIV players in the field this week – rubbished his fellow defectors’ claims that they left the PGA Tour to grow the game of golf. 

“They’re full of shit; they’re growing their pockets,” Varner told the newspaper in a wide-ranging interview. “I tell them all the time, all of them: You didn’t come here to fucking grow the fucking game.”

Varner admitted from the off that that he joined LIV for the financial benefits, going against the PR advice followed by other players to say the move was motivated by an opportunity to further popularise the sport. When he signed up with LIV last year, Varner admitted that it was “simply too good of a financial breakthrough” to refuse.

The 18 LIV golfers at Augusta this week qualified through various means: seven are here as past champions, while another three are here because of recent major wins elsewhere. Varner is one of seven LIV players here as they remain inside the world’s top 50, but this is because of legacy results. LIV events are still not getting world ranking points, and if that continues, Varner and the other six will slide down the rankings and ultimately out of the invitee list for the Masters. 

“If you said I can’t play in the majors,” he told the Washington Post, “I’d be fine. I’ve accepted that. I was cool with it. But some of these motherfuckers, they want their cake and eat it too, I guess. Like, dude, you knew it was going to be bad. Like going against the fucking U.S. government: Good luck, man.”