Erik van Rooyen
Personal information
Born (1990-02-21) 21 February 1990 (age 34)
Bellville, South Africa
Height1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Weight86 kg (190 lb; 13.5 st)
Sporting nationality South Africa
ResidenceJohannesburg, South Africa
SpouseRose van Rooyen
Children1
Career
CollegeUniversity of Minnesota
Turned professional2013
Current tour(s)PGA Tour
Sunshine Tour
Former tour(s)European Tour
Challenge Tour
Professional wins6
Highest ranking40 (23 February 2020)[1]
(as of 3 March 2024)
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour2
European Tour1
Sunshine Tour1
Challenge Tour1
Other1
Best results in major championships
Masters TournamentCUT: 2022
PGA ChampionshipT8: 2019
U.S. OpenT23: 2020
The Open ChampionshipT17: 2018
Achievements and awards
European Tour
Graduate of the Year		2018

Erik van Rooyen (born 21 February 1990) is a South African professional golfer who currently plays on the European Tour and the PGA Tour. He has won twice on the PGA Tour, as well as once on the European Tour.

Amateur career

Van Rooyen attended the University of Minnesota from 2009 through 2013.[2] During this experience, he won the 2012 Minnesota State Amateur.[3]

Professional career

In 2013, Van Rooyen turned professional. He has played on the Sunshine Tour since turning professional. In early 2017, he had his first win on the tour, the Eye of Africa PGA Championship, making a birdie at the first extra hole in a three-man playoff.[4] He played on the 2017 Challenge Tour where he had his second professional win, the Hainan Open. A number of other good finishes, including fourth place in the Kazakhstan Open and a tie for third in the season-ending NBO Golf Classic Grand Final, put van Rooyen third in the Challenge Tour Race to Oman rankings, earning a card for the 2018 European Tour season.

Erik van Rooyen at the 2019 Scandinavian Invitation in Gothenburg, Sweden, at the driving range before the second round

In December 2017, van Rooyen was runner-up in the Joburg Open, three strokes behind Shubhankar Sharma. The event was part of the Open Qualifying Series and his high finish gave him an entry to the 2018 Open Championship, his first major championship.[5] He led the 2018 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open by four strokes after three rounds, but a final round 74 dropped him into a tie for 4th place.

Van Rooyen made a good start to 2019, finishing joint runner-up in the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters and the Hassan II Golf Trophy. He also had a top-10 finish in the 2019 PGA Championship.

On 25 August 2019, van Rooyen won his first European Tour title at the Scandinavian Invitation at Hills Golf & Sports Club, outside Gothenburg, Sweden. He sank a 12 feet birdie putt on the finishing par 5 72nd hole, to win by a stroke with a new tournament record 261 on the par 70 course.[6]

After van Rooyen tied for third at the WGC-Mexico Championship in February 2020, he advanced to a career best 40th on the Official World Golf Ranking.

After a T20 finish at the 2020 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in August 2020, van Rooyen was granted Special Temporary Membership until the end of the 2019–20 PGA Tour season.[7]

In August 2021, van Rooyen won his first PGA Tour event at the Barracuda Championship. He broke the tournament scoring record by shooting a total of 50 points (modified stableford) over four rounds.[8]

In November 2023, van Rooyen won the 2023 World Wide Technology Championship for his first PGA Tour win in over two years. He made a putt for an eagle on the par-5 18th hole on Sunday to win. In the last round, van Rooyen played the back nine in 8-under 28 as part of a 9-under 63.[9]

Amateur wins

Professional wins (6)

PGA Tour wins (2)

No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runner(s)-up
1 8 Aug 2021 Barracuda Championship 50 pts (7-17-10-16=50) 5 points United States Andrew Putnam
2 5 Nov 2023 World Wide Technology Championship −27 (68-64-66-63=261) 2 strokes United States Matt Kuchar, Colombia Camilo Villegas

European Tour wins (1)

No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runner-up
1 25 Aug 2019 Scandinavian Invitation −19 (65-68-64-64=261) 1 stroke England Matt Fitzpatrick

European Tour playoff record (0–1)

No. Year Tournament Opponents Result
1 2019 Turkish Airlines Open England Tyrrell Hatton, France Benjamin Hébert,
United States Kurt Kitayama, France Victor Perez,
Austria Matthias Schwab 		Hatton won with par on fourth extra hole
Kitayama eliminated by birdie on third hole
Hébert, Perez and van Rooyen eliminated by birdie on first hole

Sunshine Tour wins (1)

No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runners-up
1 12 Feb 2017 Eye of Africa PGA Championship −16 (69-68-68-67=272) Playoff South Africa Dylan Frittelli, South Africa Makhetha Mazibuko

Sunshine Tour playoff record (1–0)

No. Year Tournament Opponents Result
1 2017 Eye of Africa PGA Championship South Africa Dylan Frittelli, South Africa Makhetha Mazibuko Won with birdie on first extra hole

Challenge Tour wins (1)

No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runners-up
1 15 Oct 2017 Hainan Open1 −18 (67-65-67-71=270) 2 strokes Scotland Grant Forrest, Finland Tapio Pulkkanen

1Co-sanctioned by the China Tour

Other wins (1)

No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runner-up
1 12 Jun 2016 Tapemark Charity Pro-Am −13 (69-64-67=200) 5 strokes United States Justin Smith

Source:[10]

Results in major championships

Results not in chronological order before 2019 and in 2020.

Tournament 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Masters Tournament WD CUT
PGA Championship T8 T51 CUT CUT
U.S. Open T43 T23 CUT CUT
The Open Championship T17 T20 NT CUT
  Top 10
  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
WD = withdrew
"T" indicates a tie for a place
NT = No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic

Summary

Tournament Wins 2nd 3rd Top-5 Top-10 Top-25 Events Cuts made
Masters Tournament 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
PGA Championship 0 0 0 0 1 1 4 2
U.S. Open 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 2
The Open Championship 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 2
Totals 0 0 0 0 1 4 13 6

Results in The Players Championship

Tournament 2022
The Players Championship T13

"T" indicates a tie for a place

Results in World Golf Championships

Tournament 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Championship T36 T3 T37
Match Play NT1 R16 T60
Invitational T20
Champions T22 T38 NT1 NT1 NT1

1Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic

  Top 10
  Did not play

NT = No tournament
"T" = Tied
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
Note that the Championship and Invitational were discontinued from 2022.

Team appearances

Professional

See also

References

  1. ^ "Week 8 2020 Ending 23 Feb 2020" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  2. ^ "Erik van Rooyen". Golden Gophers. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  3. ^ "MGA Amateur Championship". Minnesota Golf Association. Archived from the original on 15 February 2022.
  4. ^ "Van Rooyen pulls off Eye of Africa play-off victory". Sunshine Tour. 12 February 2017.
  5. ^ "Sharma romps to maiden win at Joburg Open". European Tour. 11 December 2017. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  6. ^ "Van Rooyen jumps into Race to Dubai top ten". European Tour. 27 August 2019. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  7. ^ "Erik van Rooyen accepts Special Temporary Membership". PGA Tour. 4 August 2020. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  8. ^ "Erik van Rooyen wins first PGA Tour title in style, setting tourney scoring record". Golf Digest. 8 August 2021. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
  9. ^ "van Rooyen eagles 18 to win in Mexico as Kuchar melts down". TSN.ca. Associated Press. 5 November 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  10. ^ Fermoyle, Mike (12 June 2016). "Van Rooyen Cruises to Victory at Tapemark". TSN.ca. Minnesota Golf Association. Retrieved 7 November 2023.

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