Olympian Erik van Rooyen skips opening ceremony to play in ‘home state’ 3M Open

Erik van Rooyen could have been on the Seine River representing his South Africa in the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony Friday.

Instead the PGA Tour player will tee off with England’s Harry Hall and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo at 7:40 a.m. — a late lunchtime in France — that day at the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine.

And he’s good with that.

A former Gophers golfer, van Rooyen will play for his country along with Christiaan Bezuidenhout the next weekend on the same course that hosted the 2018 Ryder Cup.

Van Rooyen is a two-time Tour winner and the first Gopher golfer to participate in the Olympics. He and Bezuidenhout will compete for the gold, silver and bronze medals awarded.

“Initially, I really wanted to go to the opening ceremony,” van Rooyen said. “It’s an incredible honor to represent your country. It doesn’t happen that often, especially in golf.”

Instead, he is at the 3M Open after an adventurous trip from his home in Jupiter, Fla., to Minnesota, from which his wife, Rose, and her family from North St. Paul come.

“I wanted to go this week, but at the same time, such a great week, being with family, being back here in the Twin Cities. I’m happy to be here.”

It’s also a chance to build upon a season in which he won last fall and has four Top 8 finishes, including a T-2 in the Cognizant Classic in March, T-4 in the Myrtle Beach Classic and T-6 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.

Most recently he finished tied for 39th at the Scottish Open two weeks ago before he went home to Florida because he hadn’t qualified for the British Open at Royal Troon in Scotland.

“I was home missing out on playing in the Open Championship,” said van Rooyen, who has finished as high as T-17 in 2018. “I was home watching some golf.”

Six other Olympians are in the 3M Open field — Grillo, Rafael Campos (Puerto Rico), Adrien Dumont de Chassart (Belgium), Matti Schmid (Germany), Alejandro Tosti (Argentina), and Kevin Yu (Chinese Taipei).

Van Rooyen’s travel to Minnesota last week was delayed and canceled by a global tech outage that disrupted thousands of flights worldwide.

“We were on the plane, on a Delta flight, and they told us they didn’t have any pilots,” van Rooyen said. “About 10 minutes later, they canceled the flight. So we made our way. Luckily, I had a few Net Jets [private plane] hours remaining, so I bit the bullet and we made it.”

This time last year, van Rooyen and his former college teammate and longtime caddie Alex Gaugert competed against each other rather than working together. Gaugert overcame a delayed red-eye flight, a race against the clock and ultimately a 4-for-3 playoff to advance from a Monday qualifier at nearby Victory Links in his first PGA Tour event.

“Back to normal,” van Rooyen said. “It should be a good week. That was special, wasn’t it? Being able to play with your best friend in a PGA Tour event. That’s the stuff we talked about in college. To have it happen was awesome.”