The South African golfer, Erik Van Rooyen was born on February 21, 1990, and started his golf journey with the University of Minnesota in 2009. But his introduction to golf took place much before when he was only 7 years old, by his father. Van Rooyen’s father had a membership in a local golf club and the father-son duo would practice on Sundays.
At an early age, young Van Rooyen enjoyed golf as an outdoor game where he could hit the ball but later a competitive zeal developed in him. The competitiveness started at 14 and he was instigated to play college golf. Around this time, he aspired to take up golf as a career.
“That’s when I started thinking about how I kind of want to play professionally and college was a route that I wanted to go.”
In his college days, the South African had only one amateur triumph at the 2012 Minnesota State Amateur. Apart from golf, at the University of Minnesota, Erik Van Rooyen also achieved personal success and met his love of life, Rose Roberts. The couple got married in 2014 and were blessed with their first child in 2023. Now, let’s take a closer look at his professional career.
Erik Van Rooyen’s professional career as a golfer
The South African golfer turned professional in 2013 and first appeared on the Sunshine Tour. Following that, he secured his first victory in 2017 at the Africa PGA Championship.
Then, after Erik Van Rooyen joined the Challenge Tour, he bagged his first victory in 2017 at the Hainan Open. His form and persistent display of golf skills placed him in third place in the Race to Oman rankings. As a result of this rank, he received his DP World Tour card. In the same year, he also appeared at the Open Championship and sealed the T17 rank in 2018.
His career started escalating with the first DP World Tour title at the Scandinavian Invitation. In the 2019 event, his score was 19 under par, and he won against Matt Fitzpatrick by one shot. His journey continued to reach heights, securing the 40th rank in the world rankings after the 2020 WGC Mexico Open.
The South African golfer rejoiced in his first PGA Tour title in 2021 at the Barracuda Championship and recorded a five-stroke win over Andrew Putnam. His most recent triumph on the US-based Tour was at the World Wide Technology Championship in 2023, where he was two strokes ahead of Matt Kuchar and Camilo Villegas. Currently, his rank is 90th in the world. As of now, his best performance was at the PGA Championship in 2019, where he secured a T8 position.
Erik Van Rooyen is tearing up the greens at the Mexico Open, amigos! ️♂️ Holding the lead at -9, he’s got the competition sweating! Can he keep the momentum? The Vidanta Vallarta course ain’t no birdie fiesta, but we might see a few players hit -20. Plenty of bogeys… pic.twitter.com/UGM6mHLcId
— PGA Odds (@PgaOdds) February 23, 2024
Currently, Erik Van Rooyen is leading the Mexico Open. His Thursday round ended with 63 and he carded two eagles on holes 6 and 12. Apart from that, he secured five birdies throughout the round. Now, it is time to see whether he can retain his place and triumph at the event.
