PALMETTO CHAMPIONSHIP AT CONGAREE

June 10, 2021

Erik Van Rooyen

Congaree Golf Club

Quick Quotes - 2

Q. How were you able to get in such a good rhythm?

ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Hard work. (Laughing.) For real. I haven't been playing my best the last 12 months and it's really just change of putter, maybe change of attitude and hard work, that's really it.

Q. What was the change of putter?

ERIK VAN ROOYEN: I went -- I used the Odyssey two-ball 10 and I went to a blade putter. I grew up putting with a blade putter. I went back to that style of putter right after Kiawah and it's been great.

Q. You hadn't played since Kiawah, so then to see results that you did today, could you tell that my work's paying off or once you got into the round it started clicking?

ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Well, yeah, after Kiawah I took some time off -- I think we all know what happened at Kiawah, I kind of lost my mind a little bit -- and I took some time off to reflect and think about, not only what I did, but also just how I want to be a better golfer. I was at home for a week and then went up to Minnesota to visit the in-laws and I just, I played golf every single day and just put a lot of reps in. And before you know it you start putting well, you start hitting it well and things kind of come together. And then at the U.S. Open qualifier I played really well and I think I'm just sort of going forward.

Q. Have you ever had a reflection like that before in you career, or at least in the last two or three years, where it just kind of came to a head?

ERIK VAN ROOYEN: You're referring specifically to kind of my behavior or just in general?

Q. You said that you were reflecting on what happened.

ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Yeah, I'm really not prone to doing stuff like that, it's not the way I was taught by my parents. Breaking clubs or simply slamming clubs was really frowned upon, at least where I'm from. And then to go and do something like that was quite out of character for me. I was embarrassed. And for me it was really sort of a cherry on the cake with regards to the levels of frustration I went through. And that's not an excuse I'm trying to make, but when you get to that kind of point it kind of wakes up and it kind of shakes you a little bit. So, again, I shouldn't have done it, but in hindsight maybe that's kind of the switch I needed.