Erik van Rooyen climbed eight places on the leaderboard on Friday with a second round of four-under-par 67 in the PGA Tour’s Shriners Children’s Open at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Van Rooyen moved to five-under-par for the tournament and a share of 34th place heading into the weekend. He was seven strokes behind the lead which was shared by Americans Cameron Champ and Lanto Griffin. At 12-under, they were a shot ahead of Swede Henrik Norlander, with Canada’s Nick Taylor and JT Poston of the United States in a share of fourth.
Van Rooyen made five birdies and a bogey as he continues his quest to finish inside the top 120 of the FedEx Fall rankings to ensure adequate status on the PGA Tour’s 2024 season. He will need to continue his good form and climb up the leaderboard: He is currently in 125th, but projected to slip to 128th from his current position in the field.
Behind him, Garrick Higgo climbed 28 places on the leaderboard into a share of 48th with his second round of five-under-par 66. Higgo got it to seven-under through 15 holes, but dropped shots on the 16th and 17th to put him at four-under through 36 holes.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout had a three-under 68 in the second round to make the cut on the number at three-under.
Dylan Frittelli and MJ Daffue both missed the cut, along with LPGA star Lexi Thompson, whose second round of two-under 69 took her to even-par for the tournament.
