Erik van Rooyen had a brief encounter with a swarm of bees but the rest of his round was near flawless, carding a 7-under 64 to sit just one shot off the early lead at the top of this week’s Mexico Open at Vidanta.
EVR put on a ball-striking clinic today, piping 10-of-13 fairways and pelting 16 GIR. He gained 4.2 strokes on approach which was fourth-best in the field. “I think I’m a good sort of mid to long iron player and there’s a lot of that out here. That suits me.” His lone bogey came at the eighth, just two holes before his encounter with a swarm of bees, “I was over the ball with a 4-iron, look back and I just saw them here and I just told my caddie, I’m like, ‘Bees, bees, bees,’ and he looks at me like I’m crazy. So I dropped down, then he sees them, he dropped down. Frankie and Chez, they look at me like I’m nuts and then they realized, like 30 seconds later the bees just went right at them.” He managed a par after regrouping and then added a highlight eagle, five holes later, holing out from 141 yards. The South African has two top 10s this season but a lot more inconsistency than we saw from him in his peak (2019). He arrived at just 115th in the FedExCup race.