Erik van Rooyen eagled the final hole on Sunday to earn a remarkable victory at the World Wide Technology Championship in Mexico.
The 33-year-old South African, who’s only previous victory on the PGA TOUR came in the 2021 Barracuda Championship, produced a back-nine charge which included birdies on the 10th, 12th, and 14th as well as a 15th-foot eagle putt on the final hole to close with a 9-under 63 and finish the tournament at Tiger Woods-designed El Cardonal on 27 under, two shots ahead of Colombian Camilo Villegas and American Matt Kuchar.
Van Rooyen was nearly moved to tears after securing his second victory on the PGA TOUR and dedicated this triumph to his former college teammate, Jon Trasamar, who is battling cancer.
“I was calm because there’s bigger stuff in life than golf,” he said. “If you look at my ball there’s music notes on there and the initials JT and it’s for Jon Trasamar, our best friend who’s got melanoma and he’s not going to make it. Every shot out there today was for him.
“When you’re playing for something bigger than winning some silly trophy it puts it into perspective. At the end of the day, whether I won here or I lost here it really did not matter.
“We love him so much and I’m still sort of in disbelief what he’s going through and I wish I could take all his pain away. We’re flying up to Minnesota tomorrow to go and see him on Tuesday morning and I’ll give him a high-five then.”
The next event on the PGA TOUR is the Butterfield Bermuda Championship taking place between 9-12 November at Port Royal Golf Club in Bermuda.