Varner wins LIV Golf DC, Torque takes team title

POTOMAC FALLS: In his 11-year professional career, Harold Varner III has won individual trophies in Australia and Saudi Arabia. With his RangeGoats GC, he celebrated a LIV Golf League team trophy earlier this year in Singapore.

But the 32-year-old resident of North Carolina had never won on American soil until Sunday, when he captured the LIV Golf DC trophy with a final-round 4-under 68 for a one stroke victory over hard-charging Branden Grace.

In winning on the outskirts of the nation’s capital on Memorial Day weekend in front of the largest crowd to attend a LIV Golf tournament in the US, Varner becomes the second different RangeGoats player to win this season, joining good friend Talor Gooch, who won back-to-back titles in Adelaide and Singapore.

“Very special,” Varner said. “I’ve never won in America. It’s my favorite country.”

Varner did not get to enjoy a champagne celebration with his team, though. The Spanish-speaking Torque GC won for the second time this season, shooting a final-round counting score of 9 under to finish at 27 under, beating the South African Stinger GC by three shots, with the RangeGoats taking third.

“It’s good, but at the end of the day, I really wanted to celebrate with the RangeGoats,” Varner said. “That’s my team.”

Varner produced several clutch moments Sunday at Trump National Washington D.C., none bigger than his hole-out from the bunker for birdie at the par-4 11th to take the lead. His tee shot at the par-3 15th set up another birdie to give him a two-stroke lead.

But Grace, who lost in a playoff to Dustin Johnson two weeks ago in Tulsa, birdied two of his last three holes, including his final hole, the par-4 second, to tie Varner at 11 under. “I played flawless all day,” said