Erik van Rooyen had to overcome a double-bogey on Thursday in his first competitive round of 2025 as he carded a one-under-par 69 in the first round of the PGA Tour’s Sony Open in Hawaii at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu.
Van Rooyen made three birdies on the front nine and two on the back, with bogeys on the seventh and the 15th. He made his double on the par-three 11th, when he pushed his tee-shot well right and had to take a penalty-drop to get out of the trouble he was in. He was unable to get up and down to salvage a bogey.
His one-under put him five strokes off the lead, which was shared by six players. Harry Hall of England and Americans Adam Schenk, Eric Cole, Denny McCarthy, Paul Petersen and Tom Hoge were all on six-under, one clear of six players on five-under-par.
Aldrich Potgieter started his career on the POGA Tour with a double-bogey on the 10th hole, and he made two more bogeys on each of the nines. Together with his three birdies, he ended up signing for an opening three-over-par 73. That put him in a share of 129th in the field of 143 players.
