Harold Varner III disputes Bear Slide's account of removal

Harold Varner III has disputed the account an Indiana public course gave of why his group was told to leave last week. A statement posted Sunday to the LIV golfer's Instagram account says the version published by Bear Slide Golf Club, in Cicero, Indiana, contains inaccuracies and “does not fairly represent what occurred.” It landed hours before the final round of LIV Golf Indianapolis, played about 10 miles away at The Club at Chatham Hills.

What does Bear Slide say happened?

In a Facebook post, the course said Varner had a foursome on the tee sheet for August 18 and that six golfers turned up 30 minutes after the booked time. Staff offered to split them into two threesomes. According to the club, the group pressed to go off as a six-some — asking the starter several more times and the pro shop three times — and was refused each time because there was play behind.

The course said the two threesomes held their shape for three holes, then joined at the par-3 fourth, away from the clubhouse, with staff watching all six tee off and hole out. After that green the group was asked to return its carts, refunded and told it was no longer welcome. The club also rejected the suggestion the course was empty behind them, counting four groups backed up across the second, third and fourth tees.

Two accounts of the same four holes disagree on the one detail that decides who was in the wrong.

What is Harold Varner III's version?

The statement issued on Varner's behalf says the group asked before teeing off whether it could play a three-against-three scramble, and accepted the starter's refusal without argument. It says the six then played as two separate threesomes at pace, the first group finishing a hole and waiting while the second played its approach.

On the central allegation it is direct: the six never combined, and no group immediately ahead or behind was held up. It adds that after the fourth hole the starter approached the second threesome, believing the players were merging, and asked everyone to leave. Varner, it says, was already walking to the next tee and was never spoken to directly.

Where does the dispute stand?

Neither side has produced anything beyond its own telling, and the two differ on the single fact that matters: whether six players were on the fourth hole at once. The club framed its post as a defence of applying the same rules to everyone regardless of who is playing. Varner has not spoken about it publicly at LIV Golf Indianapolis, where he was tied for 16th at nine under through 54 holes of the season's final event.