Erik van Rooyen bounced back on Friday after a poor opening round as he fired a six-under-par 65 in the second round of the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitation at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California.
He climbed 66 places on the leaderboard into a share of 31st at three-under-par for the tournament. The lead was held by Joaquin Niemann of Chile, who picked up his second successive eight-under 63 to race to 14-under after 36 holes, and a two-stroke lead over Cameron Young of the United States. Justin Thomas was in third on 11-under.
Van Rooyen got going early in his round with successive birdies on the first three holes. He made two more on the bounce on the sixth and seventh, before dropping a shot on the par-four ninth when he was unable to get onto the green with his third after hitting his approach right and into the rough. But he made two birdies in a row immediately after the turn on 10 and 11, and the parred his way home.
Behind him, Dylan Frittelli carded a two-over-par 73 to slip to a share of 52nd on one-under-par.
Branden Grace, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Charl Schwartzel all missed the cut.
