Erik van Rooyen of Bellville, South Africa won the 2023 World Wide Technology Championship in Los Cabos, Mexico on Sunday. The victory came in dramatic fashion as he eagled the 18th hole to get to -27.
Van Rooyen beat American Matt Kuchar and Colombian Camilo Villegas by two strokes. Villegas and Kuchar both shot a four round score of -25. American Justin Suh was the only other player in contention as he was at -24. Matt Kuchar hails from Winter Park, Florida, and Suh is from San Jose, California.
Van Rooyen shot a first round score of four-under-par 68. That was followed by as second round score of eight-under-par 64, and a third round score of six-under-par 66, and a fourth round score of nine-under-par 63. The eagle van Rooyen made on the par-five 18th on Sunday, was actually one of three eagles he had in the tournament. He also posted a score of three on the par five first hole in round two, and a score of two on the par four third hole in round three. The eagle Van Rooyen posted in the 18th hole was noteworthy because on the same hole in the second round, he had a score of seven (a double bogey).
The 2023 World Wide Technology Championship however will be best remembered by Kuchar’s struggles in the third round. At one point on Saturday, he had a six-stroke lead, but then had a quadruple bogey on the 15th hole.
This was Van Rooyen’s second PGA title. He previously won the 2021 Barracuda Championship in Truckee, California. That unique event uses the Modified Stableford scoring system. Van Rooyen won his tournament on the same day Abraham Ancer of Mexico won the 2021 World Golf Championship Fed Ex St. Jude Invitational from Memphis, Tennessee.
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