Erik van Rooyen secured his first ever PGA Tour title, winning the Barracuda Championship by five points in California on Sunday. The South African scored 50 points across the week in a modified stableford format to clinch victory ahead of American Andrew Putnam who finished on 45 for the tournament.
Van Rooyen headed into the final round at Tahoe Mountain Club four points behind day three leader Adam Scenk, however a final round seven-under-par saw the world number 113 score an impressive 16 points, giving him maiden PGA Tour win.
Speaking after his first victory Van Rooyen said: “Obviously this [First PGA Tour win] was in my mind, kind of the next step for what I wanted to achieve. I’ve got big dreams and aspirations, and winning on the PGA Tour was certainly part of that. I’m really, really happy.”
He added: “I just stayed so patient. I saw that Andrew Putnam got off to a really, really quick start. He was 45 points pretty early on. And there’s really nothing I could do about that. I’ve got to put one foot in front of the next. And I did that. And then the eagle on eight was just a massive boost.”
The highlight of the 31-year-old’s fourth round in California came on the eighth hole, where the South African drove the 312-yard, par four green to leave his tee shot just five feet away from the hole, before rolling in the eagle putt for five points.
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He would then go on to card a bogeyless final ten holes – that included four birdies – to separate himself from the rest of the field at the top of the leaderboard.
The unique scoring system at the Barracuda Championship sees players receive eight points for an albatross, five for an eagle, two for a birdie and zero for a par. There is then a one point deduction for a bogey and a three point deduction for a double bogey or worse.
Victory moves van Rooyen into 78th in the FedEx Cup rankings giving him a spot at the Northern Trust, where the top 125 players qualify for the opening play-off event, before it is cut to 70 for the following BMW Championship, and then 30 for the finale in Atalanta at the Tour Championship.
The South African commented on the importance of both his win, and movement up the FedEx rankings, saying: “It’s massive. It’s massive. It’s been a difficult sort of 18 months for me golf-wise. I haven’t been playing well. There’s been glimpses of it the last six months.
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