Erik van Rooyen was within the health club when his cellphone chimed.
It was Nov. 1, 2023, the tip of the worst yr of his skilled profession, and a day he’ll always remember. Heading into the final three weeks of the PGA Tour season, the then-33-year-old South African was the FedExCup bubble boy. With no margin for error, the purpose was to struggle like hell, get by way of the rest of the autumn and reset for subsequent yr. The prospect of dropping his card, to piecemealing a schedule collectively on three totally different excursions, was onerous to just accept when, not way back, van Rooyen was a top-50 participant on this planet. And apart from, over the previous few months, he believed he was making actual progress. Rebuilding his battered physique. High quality-tuning his swing with a brand new coach. Regaining his misplaced confidence. Now, he simply wanted extra time.
Event week on the World Broad Expertise Championship had already begun inauspiciously. The week prior, van Rooyen was so sick he might barely get off the bed. Upon arrival in Cabo, his swing felt simply as shaky; he was hitting wild hooks with even his most lofted golf equipment. Determined to seek out some key that labored, he relied on over-the-top fade swings that also, someway, produced a slight draw. No matter, he sighed. This’ll should do.
The Wednesday pro-am supplied one last probability to get proper earlier than the beginning of the occasion. It was 90 minutes earlier than his tee time when he tapped into his cellphone to learn the most recent message within the group chat together with his former teammates.
“Boys,” the textual content began.
“Simply met with my physician once more.
“It’s not excellent news.”
And for the primary time all season – possibly for the primary time in his life – van Rooyen’s golf now not mattered.
“Inform your finest good friend you like him.”
Whereas Erik van Rooyen ( @FredVR_ ) fought for his TOUR profession, his finest good friend Jon Trasamar was combating for his life.
This week on the PGA Championship, he’s taking part in “For Trazzy.” @RyanLavnerGC pic.twitter.com/0zzp6BCfAw
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) Might 13, 2024
* * *
THE FIRST PERSON WHO greeted van Rooyen following his 20-hour journey from South Africa was Jon Trasamar.
In September 2009, Trasamar traveled 2 ½ hours from his household’s house in Blue Earth, Minnesota, simply to welcome van Rooyen to the U.S. and, quickly, to the College of Minnesota golf staff, the place they have been about to be teammates. Earlier than lengthy, they have been inseparable, freshmen roommates who grew to become finest mates, their bond strengthened not simply by their shut proximity however the shared hardships of taking part in elite Division I golf collectively. They have been small-town children with outsized goals. Van Rooyen was the staff’s prime participant, by no means successful however ending runner-up within the Huge Ten Championship his senior yr. In the meantime, Trasamar, nicknamed “Trazzy,” served because the staff chief and captain, setting the tone together with his work ethic, analytical method and inclusive angle.
“He was the mannequin,” says Alex Gaugert, a four-year teammate.
A number of gamers on the staff have been geared up for the subsequent stage, and van Rooyen returned house after commencement to chase a card. He joined the Sunshine Tour, steadily climbed by way of the European tour ranks and, after a powerful 2019 season, crashed the highest 50 within the Official World Golf Rating (as soon as reaching as excessive as No. 40) to create an entry level into PGA Tour occasions.
Safe on the course and steady off it, van Rooyen was the image of contentment: He had employed Gaugert, his previous teammate, on the bag full-time and married Rose, his faculty sweetheart, with Trasamar serving as the perfect man within the marriage ceremony.
“It was at all times the dream that we have been going to play the PGA Tour collectively,” van Rooyen says. “That’s actually the last word for me, taking part in together with your finest mate.”
However by spring 2022, Trasamar had reached a profession crossroads, torn over whether or not to proceed to play professionally and not using a clear finish recreation. He had discovered love, too, getting arrange by way of mutual mates with a Midwest woman named Allie Haen, whose uncle is longtime PGA Tour participant Jerry Kelly. It was an excellent partnership, for Allie knew intimately the trials and tribulations of a persistent professional, and she or he wholeheartedly supported Trasamar as he took caddie gigs and signed up for Q-Faculty and performed greater than a half-dozen mini-tours, making an attempt to make his mark.
They obtained married in Madison, Wisconsin, on the spot the place they first met, on a spring day marked by morning snow after which stunning sunshine. Trasamar and van Rooyen posed for footage in matching dark-gray fits with crisp white shirts and grey ties, younger males who, in spite of everything these years, had change into larger cheerleaders than opponents.
“They have been nearly like brothers – that’s how shut they have been,” Allie says. “They needed to play professionally on the highest stage they may, however past that, as males, they needed to be the perfect variations of themselves. They needed to start out households. They needed to dwell a life that they have been happy with.”
However simply two months later, that ultimate took on a wholly totally different that means.
* * *
IT WAS ALLIE WHO first prompt that her husband go see his dermatologist. There have been two moles – one on Jon’s again, one other on his knee – that she thought appeared regarding. Her suspicions have been confirmed a month later, when the physician referred to as: These spots had examined constructive for melanoma.
The early prognosis, no less than, was optimistic. Oncologists eliminated areas across the moles to make sure that the margins have been clear. “They have been inspired by what they have been initially seeing,” Allie says. A full-body scan confirmed that Jon was as soon as once more disease-free.
After the scare, he felt extra compelled than ever to pursue his professional targets. “He felt like he was given a brand new lease on life,” Allie says. “That this was a second probability.”
One of many first individuals Trasamar advised about his prognosis was van Rooyen. He shared the information over beers at one in every of their previous haunts close to campus.
“You don’t actually assume a lot of it,” van Rooyen says. “The physician stated, ‘You’re going to be superb.’ We’d examine up each different week, and now issues are going nice. I used to be 32. He was 32. You’re feeling invincible. You don’t assume something’s going to occur.”
And apart from, van Rooyen was now coping with his personal well being issues. Lower than a yr after his breakthrough win on the 2021 Barracuda Championship, his ascendant profession had been slowed by decrease again and neck points. Making ready for the 2022 Open, van Rooyen damage his neck at St. Andrews and, by the eve of the event, couldn’t even chip. He withdrew and headed to South Africa for 3 months of rehab. When he lastly returned to competitors, he was a shell of his former self, racking up missed cuts, tanking within the rankings and, earlier than lengthy, imperiling his Tour standing.
“Very irritating,” van Rooyen says. “I had performed my finest golf, and then you definately get injured and also you’re so determined to get again to that place. It’s onerous.”
On the identical time, Trasamar started struggling setbacks, too. At his three-month post-procedure appointment, docs discovered an infected lymph node in his again that wanted to be biopsied. It was constructive for melanoma. That led to a different scan that confirmed an extra spot on his rib. Additionally melanoma. Over the course of some months, he vacillated from having superficial moles to no indicators of most cancers to scans revealing two new spots and immunotherapy therapy.
“As a melanoma affected person, there’s at all times an opportunity for recurrence, and I believe that’s your greatest worry,” Allie says. “Even in the event you’re feeling good and you’ve got encouraging scans and check outcomes, you at all times surprise behind your thoughts what the subsequent scans are going to point out. You’re at all times flipflopping between being actually excited and joyful and inspired, to being actually disenchanted and discouraged and heartbroken. And I believe that’s actually robust to handle and attempt to wrap your head round.”
Quickly, there was much more instability. In early 2023, Trasamar found blood in his urine and flew again to Minnesota to see his oncologist. It was there that he discovered that the most cancers hadn’t simply returned – it had unfold all through his physique, into his liver, backbone, again and legs.
One of many greatest areas of illness burden was his femurs, and emergency surgical procedure was scheduled to stabilize the legs of his 6-foot-2-inch body with a titanium rod. There throughout his post-operation restoration was van Rooyen, who broke away from the endless grind of his Tour schedule to be by his brother’s aspect. For months, he jetted to Rochester to hearken to him, to encourage him, typically simply to take a seat within the ready room with him.
“He simply needed to be there for Jon,” Allie says, “and he needed Jon to know that he wasn’t alone. Erik was an unimaginable supply of power for him – at all times asking what he might do for Jon and the way he might assist him, and provides him braveness to deal with no matter was being thrown at him.”
After a brand new spherical of therapy that spring, Trasamar had one other follow-up appointment to chart his progress. And this time, the information was astonishing: His pores and skin was utterly clear. There was no proof of most cancers anyplace.
“We felt just like the luckiest individuals on this planet,” Allie says. “We thought the worst was behind us. We had gotten by way of this.”
“We’re crying on the cellphone and so joyful,” van Rooyen says. “He’s going to tug by way of.”
Van Rooyen noticed Trasamar once more that summer season, forward of the 3M Open in Minnesota. Trasamar appeared and sounded regular. He was strolling. Speaking optimistically. He’d misplaced a little bit of weight however nothing drastic. He’d even signed up for the Monday qualifier on Tour however withdrew beforehand due to again tightness.
“The entire time, I’m beneath the impression that, yeah, he’s grinding,” van Rooyen says, “however he’s going to make it.”
Comforted by his finest good friend being on the mend, van Rooyen tended to the small matter of resurrecting his personal profession. After a depressing summer season stretch through which he missed 9 cuts in a 10-tournament span, he did not qualify for the FedExCup playoffs and headed to Europe to seek out some kind. He was already starting to strike the ball higher after switching to swing coach Sean Foley that summer season, and the outcomes quickly adopted. Heading into the World Broad Expertise Championship, the third-to-last occasion of the Tour’s fall collection, van Rooyen was sitting precariously on the cardboard cutoff – No. 125 – and needing yet another strong end to safe his standing for subsequent yr.
“Being on that bubble,” van Rooyen says, “it’s a tough place to be. The stress simply retains constructing and constructing. I don’t wish to lose my card to the PGA Tour. I don’t know the place that may have left me.”
Then got here Mexico.
The sickness.
The wild hooks.
And the textual content within the health club that modified all the pieces.
* * *
TRAZZY HAD JUST SENT a message.
He had undergone an MRI a day earlier, and the findings have been devastating.
The tumors had eluded each attainable line of protection.
His docs have been out of therapy choices.
There was nothing else that might be performed.
“I don’t have numerous time left,” Trasamar wrote, “feels like 6-10 weeks.”
There within the health club, van Rooyen broke down.
It didn’t make sense. Van Rooyen had simply talked to him per week earlier, when Trasamar reported some tightness in his calves and hamstrings, however he was utilizing his walker and dealing on his gait and feeling optimistic.
And now this?
Tumors pushing on his backbone? Each choice exhausted?
“An enormous shock,” van Rooyen says. “It was simply out of the blue. I believe that was the toughest half.”
He learn and re-read the 135-word textual content, then wiped away tears and soldiered by way of his pro-am spherical. Gaugert referred to as his spouse and fogeys. “I don’t understand how he’s going to play by way of this,” he stated.
Afterward, Gaugert huddled together with his boss and got here up with a rallying cry for the remainder of the week: Do It for Trazzy. Van Rooyen scribbled his initials on his golf balls, with little musical notes as a nod to his and Trasamar’s shared love of the guitar and piano.
“I believe that was fairly highly effective in a egocentric manner,” van Rooyen says. “It actually helped me focus with no worry by any means, no regard for the consequence. In a way, that gave me numerous freedom to play a few of my finest golf, understanding that I’m doing one thing for extra than simply myself.”
The 5 hours between the ropes have been a blur. Head down, coronary heart hurting, abdomen churning. Scores of 68-64-66. Solo third, a shot again, with 18 holes to play.
“I nonetheless don’t understand how we did it,” he says. “After golf, I’d be in my room bawling my eyes out, after which on the morning-of, it’s like, OK, let’s go do the job. We’re doing this for Trazzy, so we will go see him.”
Counting on his good friend’s power to bolster his personal, he’d look to Gaugert earlier than each shot within the last spherical: “This one’s for Trazzy.”
And it labored.
Misplaced for years, van Rooyen lastly rediscovered his swing. He made birdie on 10. Then one other. Then one other. Then one other. He was climbing the board, the leaders in sight, momentum constructing. Then on 15, the break of the event: He tugged his method left, his ball showing destined for the penalty space. Along with his shot mid-flight, he even turned away, unable to observe his personal demise. However his ball discovered dry land and – someway – clung to a tuft of grass above the crimson hazard line. From there, he rushed as much as play and obtained up-and-down to avoid wasting an unlikely par.
“The dude was wanting over us,” Gaugert says.
Van Rooyen: There’s larger stuff in life than golf
Erik Van Rooyen fights again tears after successful the World Broad Expertise Championship, sharing how he was in a position to channel the feelings whereas taking part in for one thing larger together with his sick finest good friend in his ideas.
Really, Trasamar was watching the unthinkable unfold from the Mayo Clinic some 3,000 miles away, the place he’d been admitted to handle his ache earlier than being discharged to hospice. Trasamar’s faculty mates crowded round his mattress as he cued up the protection on his cellphone, his finest good friend taking part in essentially the most impressed golf of his life.
“I don’t assume anybody might actually consider what was occurring,” Allie says. “It felt like a second of divine intervention.”
Via a torrent of tears, they watched a storybook end: back-to-back 20-footers for birdie on 16 and 17, then the clincher – a 20-footer for eagle that gave van Rooyen a back-nine 28 and a one-stroke victory.
On that 18th inexperienced, a lot was dashing by way of van Rooyen’s thoughts – his efficiency, his ache, his function. The satisfaction of saving his personal profession. The sorrow of understanding the tip was close to.
“I didn’t really feel something,” he says. “Once you win a event, it’s one of many biggest emotions ever. You’re employed so onerous to get to that time. You’re taking part in in opposition to the perfect gamers on the planet. The margins are so slim. To win will not be straightforward. However at that time, I used to be so numb. Simply completely numb.”
That feeling continued deep into the night time, when van Rooyen and Gaugert drank tequila and toasted to Trazzy. His standing safe and his schedule now open, van Rooyen might have continued chasing factors within the remaining two Tour occasions that may have arrange his early 2024 even higher. However by the point he lastly dozed off at 3 a.m., he’d already thought higher of it.
“We have been drained. We have been performed,” he says. “We simply needed to go see a good friend.”
Later that morning they boarded a flight to Minnesota, to say goodbye.
* * *
THERE WAS LITTLE TALK on the aircraft, as a result of, actually, what else was there to say? Van Rooyen and Gaugert have been each in disbelief. They’d saved their card. Banked $1.4 million. Earned a two-year exemption. And now, hours later, they have been touring to see their dying good friend one final time.
“The 2 issues simply don’t compute,” van Rooyen says.
He didn’t know what to anticipate the next day on the hospital, however in hindsight, he in all probability ought to have recognized; Trasamar had stopped answering his FaceTime calls a month earlier. Seeing him now, how the most cancers and therapy had ravaged him – his weight, his hair, his voice – was nearly an excessive amount of to bear.
“I wouldn’t have acknowledged him if he was strolling previous me on the sidewalk,” van Rooyen says. “So I used to be simply praying. Praying for aid. Praying for it to be performed and go away.”
The hospital room was a revolving door of family and friends, all of them no less than heartened, momentarily, by Sunday’s magical second in Mexico for Trazzy. Flanking Trasamar’s mattress, van Rooyen and Gaugert shared laughs from faculty, the tournaments they performed, the enjoyable that they had, the journeys they took, their staff captain drifting out and in of the dialog, his spouse there to fill in any gaps.
“I don’t assume Erik in all probability realized how vital of per week it was for Jon within the sense that this event gave him one thing to be enthusiastic about, gave him a way of pleasure that in any other case in all probability wouldn’t have been current,” Allie says. “I’m so grateful to Erik for offering these moments. Jon knew how a lot it meant to him, and he couldn’t have been prouder or happier for Erik than he was that week.”
After an hour, van Rooyen turned to go away.
“I grabbed his hand,” he says, “and the very last thing he advised me was, ‘I’ll see you quickly.’”
* * *
IT’S MASTERS THURSDAY, FIVE months to the day since Jon Trasamar handed away.
That was Nov. 11, or 11/11 – a numerical sequencing that was misplaced on nobody who beloved him.
“It’s an angel quantity, and it represents guardian angels,” Allie says, “and I believe it completely depicts who he was.”
This morning, she’s sitting in the lounge of her relations’ house in Scottsdale, Arizona. In a grey jacket with brown hair worn down in waves, she’s reflecting on these two unimaginable years – the shock prognosis, the bizarre most cancers journey, the merciless finish – with beautiful readability. The way it’s taught her about life’s fragility and the significance of being surrounded by these she loves. The way it’s compelled her to be constructive, courageous, sturdy. Identical to Jon.
“I preserve seeing this quote that claims, ‘Maintain going, as a result of the individual in heaven doesn’t need you to give up,’” Allie says. “And each single time I see that, I consider Jon. He by no means give up, and that offers me the power to proceed to be sturdy, to face no matter is forthcoming from a spot of braveness. As a result of if he can undergo all of that and preserve that positivity and that power, then I can try this, too. I depend on him now for that power to maneuver ahead.”
There’s a photograph album on the desk and the primary spherical of the Masters on a close-by TV. There’s her late husband’s finest good friend, together with his bushy mustache and affable demeanor and picture-perfect swing, pouring in one other birdie. Van Rooyen is now atop the early leaderboard at Augusta, a continuation of the perfect first quarter of a season in his profession. Later, he’ll inform the media that, as of late, he isn’t quick on motivation or inspiration.
“I believe Erik will carry Jon with him at all times,” Allie says as she watches the protection. “I believe Jon was a superb supply of confidence and power for him to remind him that you are able to do onerous issues. That you simply’re stronger than you notice. It’s not till you’re put in a state of affairs the place you don’t have any different selection however to be sturdy that you just notice how sturdy you really are. And I hope Erik feeds off that.”
That spirit has manifested itself in several methods, and at totally different occasions, throughout van Rooyen’s bounce-back season. Typically, it’s on a tee shot when he tells himself, This one’s for you. Others, it’s a textual content from his faculty group chat as they attempt to set up one other golf journey, this time with out their chief. At house, it’s a look on the marriage ceremony photograph in his bed room.
“It nonetheless doesn’t make sense, and it nonetheless sucks,” van Rooyen says. “I don’t assume something is ever going to fill that void. I believe you simply learn to dwell with it.”
The painful, highly effective reminiscence lives on his proper wrist, in a home made, maroon-and-gold bracelet that reads, “BE LIKE TRAZZY.”
It’s a reminder to play fearlessly.
To prioritize his family and friends.
To dwell nicely and love onerous.
“You received’t know when your time comes, and I will surely reasonably look again considering that I went all-out – that there was little question, there was no worry,” he says. “His life and his passing actually pushes me to be the perfect model of myself.”
