Erik van Rooyen holed out for eagle on his final hole on Friday to card a four-under-par 68 and move inside the top 10 of the PGA Tour’s Sanderson Farms Championship at the Country Club of Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi.
Van Rooyen had made five birdies in the first 11 holes after starting his round on the 10th, and then he stumbled with bogeys on the third, seventh and eighth before his hole-out finish with a flourish.
“Kind of squeezed a drive out there on the ninth,” said Van Rooyen of his eagle. “We had 119 to the hole. I played a 120-yard gap wedge. I think I fatted it just a smidge, and I thought it was going to be short, and it went in. One of those.”
Together with his opening 67, Van Rooyen moved to nine-under for the tournament, five off the lead which was held by Ben Griffin of the United States. At 14-under after a nine-under 63, Griffin was two clear of Harrison Endycott of Australia, American Luke List, China’s Carl Yuan and Henrik Norlander of Sweden.
“I just hit it much better yesterday, and today I made a few more putts, so it almost balanced out in a sense,” said Van Rooyen of the difference between his two opening rounds. “Yesterday I think I hit 16 greens, had so many looks, probably could have been three or four shots better, and today I did not hit it great. I made a lot of putts, and that’s golf for you.”
Van Rooyen needs a good finish to break inside the top 120 and maintain a high tier of playing status on the PGA Tour next year. He’s currently 126th and projected to stay there if he remains in 10th this week. So he needs to finish with a bit of a flourish.
“I haven’t had the greatest of seasons,” admitted Van Rooyen. “I went through a little bit of trouble with the swing and started working with Sean Foley about three months ago, and it’s gone really well. My goal is just to keep playing good golf. The game is turning around clearly. Win as many tournaments as I can. The goal really never changes. Good golf kind of takes care of everything else.”
Also on nine-under was Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who followed his opening 66 with a three-under 69. He’s projected to 98th in his current postion.
A shot back in a share of 16th was Garrick Higgo who had a six-under-par 66 in his second round and looks safe for 2024 as he projected to 74th currently.
Not so safe is Dylan Frittelli who made the cut on the number at five-under with his second round of five-under 67. He’s projected to 160th.
Also in a spot of bother was MJ Daffue, who is projected to drop nine spots from 129th after he missed the cut with a second-round one-under 71.
