Erik van Rooyen

Frederik Wilhelm 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. During this experience, he won the 2012 Minnesota State Amateur.

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. 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.thumb

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

Amateur wins 2011 Southern Cape Open 2012 Minnesota State Amateur

Professional wins (6) PGA Tour wins (2)

European Tour wins (1)

European Tour playoff record (0–1)

Sunshine Tour wins (1)

Sunshine Tour playoff record (1–0)

Challenge Tour wins (1) 1Co-sanctioned by the China Tour

Other wins (1)

Source:

Results in major championships Results not in chronological order before 2019 and in 2020.

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

Summary Most consecutive cuts made – 6 (2018 Open – 2020 U.S. Open) Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (2019 PGA)

Results in The Players Championship

CUT = missed the halfway cut "T" indicates a tie for a place

Results in World Golf Championships 1Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic

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 World Cup (representing South Africa): 2018