Erik van Rooyen and his caddie Alex Gaugert played collectively on this week’s 3M Open.
PGA Tour
Erik van Rooyen’s week on the 3M Open began with a activity: discover a caddie.
His was in any other case occupied.
Van Rooyen’s common looper, Alex Gaugert, had entered his first-ever Monday qualifier. Then he completed eagle-birdie-par to shoot 65. Then he made it by way of a playoff. Suddenly he had a tee time at TPC Twin Cities and, truly, he wanted to discover a caddie too.
By Friday afternoon they stood collectively in entrance of a microphone, Gaugert holding his three-year-old daughter in his arms, each of them reflecting on classes learned from an ideal week — leaderboard be damned.
“I mean, it was a dream,” Gaugert started.
The dream had began years earlier than on the University of Minnesota, the place the 2 have been school teammates from 2010-13.
“When we were playing college together, this was what we were all talking about,” van Rooyen mentioned after their second spherical. “Oh, man, we’re gonna play the PGA Tour together, we’re gonna room together, play practice rounds together. We get to share that a little bit with him on the bag, but with him playing a tournament, it was really, really cool.”
When van Rooyen mentioned “with him” he actually meant it. That’s as a result of the PGA Tour put the 2 in the identical 2 p.m. tee time. Gaugert labored to arrange in observe rounds however made it clear he was centered on absorbing the scene.
“Yeah, just taking in the moment. You don’t get these special moments every single week,” he mentioned. “This game’s hard and it’s cool to share that with my best friend — something I’ll never forget.”
If he’d dreamt of rivalry, 4 bogeys in Gaugert’s first six holes snapped him again to actuality. But a first-round 77 left room for enchancment, and when he holed a 10-footer for birdie on his 18th gap on Friday it was good for a spherical of even-par 71.
That was the identical second-round rating as van Rooyen, whose two-round rating of three beneath par left him one shot off the lower line. But he took extra away from the week than only a missed weekend, he mentioned. It offered a welcome shot of perspective.
“Playing the PGA Tour is such a huge privilege, man. It’s the best of the best that play here. And I know how good he is and to see the look on his face, it just reinforces for me how grateful I need to be playing here,” he mentioned.
A number of moments stood out from Gaugert’s 5 days as a Tour professional.
One was the overwhelming help he obtained from his friends.
“All the support, especially from the caddie yard and all the caddies and even the players, it was nice to get that feeling where everybody’s lifting you up and telling you ‘good job.’ It was cool to have the light shine on you for a week,” he mentioned.
Another was a style of the nice life — and a firsthand recognition of the perks of being a professional.
“I told my wife it’s kind of funny because this week as a player I actually get to use the daycare facility for the kids, so it was nice,” he mentioned.
There was additionally a second of heroism, a second that got here from the left tough on the par-5 18th on Friday. Gaugert, with nothing to lose, despatched one some 250 yards over water to the entrance left portion of the inexperienced. He made a 47-footer for eagle. Meanwhile, van Rooyen three-putted for par.
“This game’s beautiful. I’ll always remember that,” van Rooyen mentioned of the second. “It’s a sick shot he hit from over in the rough down there.”
It’d be a neat and tidy ending to say that Gaugert is aware of he can compete now. It’d be enjoyable to recommend that his goals are nearer than ever. But in some methods his takeaway was much more significant: he doesn’t suppose he has the sport to belong, which made a style of Tour competitors that rather more particular to expertise.
“Before you see it, you have this kind of false sense of hope,” he mentioned. “Once you see it firsthand week in and week out with all these great players it puts into perspective what it takes to be out here.”
Quite a lot of his beginner buddies see Gaugert’s recreation and encourage him to take an actual run at taking part in the Tour himself. He’s not offered.
“It’s like, I might like to, y’know, however I understand how good I’ve to be and if I can’t do this every day at house, what makes me suppose that I’m going to have the ability to do it in a match?
“So to put myself in their shoes and to see what they go through, you’re trying to pick shots and what you’re kind of seeing, it was a great experience.”
Van Rooyen did discover that alternative caddie, by the way in which: Robert Bowers, the assistant males’s golf coach at Minnesota. But by subsequent match each he and his full-timer will eagerly return to their respective roles.
“Oh, yeah, his job’s safe,” van Rooyen mentioned. “Trust me, we’ve been through some highs and we’ve been through some lows together. Nothing can shake us, so we’re all good.”
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