A closing four-under-par 66 on Sunday lifted Erik van Rooyen into a share of 30th in the PGA Tour’s Sony Open in Hawaii at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu.
Two back-nine bogeys hampered a late charge from Van Rooyen, who had gone through his front nine in four-under-par 31 without dropping a shot after he started the final round on the 10th. Although he completed his back nine in level-par, bogeys on four and six cancelled out his birdies on five and nine.
In the end, his best round of the week – he was under par in all of his rounds – lifted him to nine-under-par for the tournament. He was seven strokes behind the 16-under-par carded by Nick Taylor of Canada and Nico Echavarria of Colombia. Taylor won the play-off with a birdie on the second hole of sudden death, after he eagled 18 to get into the play-off.
The two leaders were one stroke clear of American JJ Spaun and Stephan Jaeger of Germany who shared third.
