Erik van Rooyen made an eagle, seven birdies and two bogeys on Friday to catapult himself up the leaderboard into seventh place after the second round of the PGA Tour’s Barracuda Championship in Truckee, California.
With eagles counting for five points in the modified stableford format, birdies two, pars none, bogey minus one and double minus three, Van Rooyen made 17 points with his seven-under 64. That moved him to 24 for the tournament, five behind the leader Emiliano Grillo of Argentina who signed for a 63 and 19 points to move to 29 and a two-point edge over American Adam Schenk.
Van Rooyen, who is familiar with the format as has been used in South Africa for many years in the Investec Royal Swazi Open, played aggressively in his chase for points. He got the ball out there off the tee, with his drive averaging 345.5 yards. He was pretty accurate too, hitting 10 of the 14 fairways, and 16 of greens in regulation.
Branden Grace picked up 14 points for his second round of two-under-par 69, and MJ Daffue made 11 points for his level-par 71. Grace was in a share of 32nd, and Daffue in 54th.
