He won the Tour event. He shot a back-nine 28. Then it all came pouring out

Erik Van Rooyen had just played the best nine holes of his life.

The South African buried a 25-foot eagle putt on the 18th hole at the El Cardonal Golf Course to cap a sizzling back-nine-28 and win the World Wide Technology Championship.

But in his postround interview with NBC Sports, his mind was elsewhere.

“How were you able to be so calm when the stakes were the highest?” NBC’s George Savaricas began the interview. Van Rooyen made back-to-back-to-back putts from outside 20 feet to erase a two-shot deficit to Matt Kuchar.

Van Rooyen paused for what felt like the longest 10 seconds ever. By the time his lips opened, there were tears coming down his cheek. It wasn’t about his victory.

“Sorry,” he finally replied. But the silence said it all. He may have just won the tournament, but it wasn’t going to change the fact that he was hurting.

“I was calm because there’s bigger stuff in life than golf,” Van Rooyen said.

The 33-year-old South African was referring to his best friend and former University of Minnesota teammate Jon Trasamar. Trasamar has been battling Stage 4 melanoma for more than a year and while he hoped he had cleared it by late 2022, he hadn’t.

According to reporting by Ryan French, after failing to make it out of the first stage of Q-School last fall, Trasamar went for a routine follow-up, he discovered the cancer had spread to his ribs. Despite treatment and improvement, another trip to the doctor this past February revealed the cancer spread to his liver, back, spine and legs.

This isn’t just any friend for Van Rooyen either. When he was just 19 years old and moving to United States from Johannesburg to attend Minnesota, Trasamar and his family were the first to welcome him.

“Leaving home wasn’t easy. Jon and his family lived about two hours away from Minneapolis,” Van Rooyen said at his press conference. “I arrived in Minnesota in September of 2009 and they were there at the airport to meet me, to say hi, because he was going to be my roommate and teammate soon after.

“We obviously became best friends.”

Sunday, 14 years later, Van Rooyen was wrestling with his friends mortality.

“He’s not gonna make it,” Van Rooyen told Savaricas off the 18 green, trying to keep himself composed. He later said Trasamar has between six to 10 weeks to live. “Every shot out there today was for him. And when you’re playing for something bigger than winning some silly trophy, it puts things in perspective.

“At the end of the day, whether I won here or I lost here, it really did not matter. When something motivates you like that, whether you make a putt or miss a putt, who cares?”

He paid no mind the fact he’s been playing this entire fall for his job. Van Rooyen came into the week ranked 125th in the FedEx Cup Fall standings, the bubble man for keep his card when the season ends in two weeks at Sea Island.

But during the final round, or throughout the entire week for that matter, Van Rooyen hardly showed any sign of the weight he was carrying.

Especially on the back nine, which he started three behind four behind Camillo Villegas. Despite making four birdies in six holes, he was still two back of Kuchar as the final trio made their way to the 16th hole.

Then Van Rooyen put together a dream finish, birding the par-3, adding another one at 17 and then, after starting the 18 hole tied with Kuchar, striping a fairway wood from 300 yards onto the par-5 green in two to set up the winning eagle putt.

But he told Savaricas he was still hurting on the inside the entire time.

“It dragged me down,” Van Rooyen said of the circumstances. “After Friday’s round, I shot … eight under on Friday and I get to my hotel room and I just break down in tears, you know?”

The emotions were overcoming him again.

“So I wasn’t calm all the time, but when I step onto the golf course, I have a fricken job to do and that’s what it comes down to at the end of the day, do your job and, now we can celebrate and cry and do whatever you want.”

At his winner’s press conference, he said all he wanted to do was play nine holes with Trasamar.

“And extremely selfishly, that puts all of this into perspective,” he said. “Is it fun to win golf tournaments? Yeah, it’s fun. I’ve been playing golf since I was 8 years old, extremely competitive and we want to win.

“But it doesn’t matter. When I’m— you know, when I kick the bucket one day, whenever that might be, this is not what I’m going to be thinking about.

“I’m going to be thinking about the people that I love the most and Jon Trasamar is one of those people.”

There is nothing selfish about Van Rooyen’s plans after earning his second PGA Tour win. He’s heading to Minnesota Monday to visit Trasamar.

Jack Hirsh

Golf.com Editor

Jack Hirsh is an assistant editor at GOLF. A Pennsylvania native, Jack is a 2020 graduate of Penn State University, earning degrees in broadcast journalism and political science. He was captain of his high school golf team and recently returned to the program to serve as head coach. Jack also still *tries* to remain competitive in local amateurs. Before joining GOLF, Jack spent two years working at a TV station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a Multimedia Journalist/reporter, but also producing, anchoring and even presenting the weather. He can be reached at jack.hirsh@golf.com.