Erik van Rooyen has won his second PGA Tour title on what was an emotional final round in Mexico for the 33-year-old South African.
Although overnight leaders Camilo Villegas and Matt Kuchar shared the lead for much of the day, the back nine saw a number of other players move into contention, including van Rooyen, who almost made a spectacular hole-in-one on the par-3 11th.
Van Rooyen spoke yesterday about how much he was looking forward to going back home to visit his close friend Jon Trasamar, who is gravely ill with cancer.
Prior to his final round, he shared an emotional hug with his caddie, Alex Gaugert, who, along with Trasamar, also attended the University of Minnesota.
Winning might not have been on his mind at the start of the week, especially given what has been a fairly ordinary season, but he was nothing short of inspirational on Sunday, and he came home in 28 for a final-round 63 to win by two strokes.
With no wind, the
Tiger Woods-designed El Cardonal was mostly defenseless, which meant that anyone not making birdies moved backwards pretty swiftly.
Villegas’ putter was hot, though, and he was quick into his stride with four birdies in his first six holes. Kuchar, meanwhile, lost ground despite making two early birdies of his own.
The 45-year-old opened his week with a pair of 65s and was six shots clear at one stage on Saturday before running into trouble on the par-4 15th, where he racked up a quadruple-bogey eight – and he followed that with another dropped shot at the 16th.
With Villegas moving ahead, Kuchar found himself doing the chasing, but he halved his opponent’s lead with a 35-footer at the par-4 9th to set up an interesting battle on the back nine.
And it came even more gripping on the last nine holes when van Rooyen moved into contention, the South African almost making an ace at the par-3 11th to move just two shots back.
Justin Suh, who was searching for his first PGA Tour title, was right in the mix, too, but it was van Rooyen’s putter that was the hottest.
Sensing an opportunity to strike with Villegas going cold on the greens, he made further gains at the 12th, 14th, 16th and 17th, before finding the green in two at the par-5 18th with one of the best shots of the week that rolled out to 12 feet.
Kuchar was wide with his approach and went long with his pitch onto the green, which opened the door for van Rooyen – and he wasted no time in delivering the knockout blow, after which he shared another embrace with his caddie.
“Every shot was for him,” said van Rooyen, who broke down several times during his post round interview, adding that he found it easy to cope with the pressure of winning the tournament with the thoughts of what his friend was going through in his kind.
Although it’s not something van Rooyen is likely to celebrate now, his second PGA Tour victory does give him a two-year exemption.
And with victories on the Challenge Tour, Sunshine Tour, DP World Tour and PGA Tour, he has plenty of reasons to feel optimistic and excited by what might lie ahead.
For a number of other players in Mexico, including Ludvig Aberg, it was a case of running out of holes, the charge coming a fraction too late on a day when, at one point, the scoring average was down at 67.11, nearly a full five shots under par
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