From the third-to-last pairing, World No. 65 Erik van Rooyen smoothed a bogey-free 4-under 33-34=67 in R3 of the RBC Heritage, nudging one place into a three-way T2 on 10-under 203, one back of leader Harold Varner III (63).
The South African is chasing a second TOUR victory, first since last season’s opposite-field Barracuda (Stableford Scoring), where he was T2, 4 points back, and fired a 7-under 64 (+16 points) to win by 5 points over Andrew Putnam. He’ll attempt another come-from-behind victory tomorrow from the penultimate pairing with R2 leader Patrick Cantlay (70). On 11 (of 14) fairways and 12 greens in regulation, he lost 0.799 strokes on approach but gained 0.764 off-the-tee, 0.601 around, and 1.349 on-the-green, despite a 3-putt par at the par-5 15th (from 36'2"). The 32-year-old’s normal caddie (Alex) isn’t here this week, so he has his brother Austin looping for him for the first time. Afterwards (link below): “Look, they’ve both got great energy, really positive guys. They love grinding, working hard. Austin is maybe a little more vocal than Alex. It’s been a really positive experience having Austin on the bag for sure.” At the three-quarter mark, he ranks No. 1 in SG: OTT (4.219) and 13th in SGP (3.377), but 54th in SG: Around (-0.578).