A double-bogey on the 12th hole on Thursday was something of a spoiler for Erik van Rooyen in the first round of the PGA Tour’s first Playoff event, the FedEx St Jude Championship at TPC Southwind, in Memphis, Tennessee.
Van Rooyen was projected to stay at 58th in the FedExCup rankings after his opening two-under-par 68 put him in a share of 18th. He needs to get inside the top 50 if he is to play the BMW Championship next week and try to progress to the Tour Championship after that by getting inside the top 30.
Chris Kirk of the United States took the first-round lead with a six-under-par 64 which gave him a one-stroke lead over Taylor Pendrith of the US, France’s Matthieu Pavon and former Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama of Japan. There were seven players on four-under in a share of fifth including world number one and two, Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele.
Van Rooyen made three birdies and a bogey on the front nine, and then came the double on 12 when he hit his approach into the water behind the green. He recovered those lost shots with birdies on 15 and 17.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout had an opening level-par 70 for a share of 43rd in the 70-man field. He is currently projected to drop to 28th from 22nd in the FedExCup standings, so he should be safe for the BMW Championship. But his position in the Tour Championship will be under threat if he doesn’t climb the leaderboard.
