RBC Heritage
Thursday, June 18, 2020
Erik van Rooyen
Quick Quotes
Q. Erik, how would you assess your round out there today?
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Very good, world class actually. Hit it extremely well, much better than last week, I think. Missed probably a few chances in the back. I think I could have gone a few lower, but all in all, I'm really happy.
Q. What was the difference like today, from like last week? I know you missed the cut last week. Did you kind of work on something in the last few days?
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Yeah, honestly, I worked a lot in the break that we had, and I was disappointed to miss the cut because I did put in quite a bit of time. I wasn't hitting it my best. Then I put in some really good practice with my coach via FaceTime -- he's in South Africa -- on Saturday last week and spoke about what I'm doing, what I'm feeling. I've just been hitting a lot better. I love the way I'm swinging it at the moment, the way I'm feeling. It showed today.
Q. Does that sometimes just help where you just maybe are getting a little bit of affirmation from your coach that you're doing the right thing. Does that help maybe the confidence kind of build inside?
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Yeah, absolutely. Yes, I missed the cut last week, but it was sometimes bad shots or missed cuts need to happen in order for you to learn from it and be better the next day. So even though I was disappointed, it was a good learning experience, and my game's kind of right where I want it.
Q. Erik, you answered this in a round about way, but I'll ask again. How do you think the three months off, what effect, if any, did that have on your game?
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: On my game?
Q. Yes, your game.
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: I don't know yet. It's pretty early in the return to golf. I was playing well leading up to Augusta. That was kind of -- we kind of had a plan to peak right at that week. Then THE PLAYERS got cancelled, and we had to go home.
So it was difficult to find motivation throughout that whole period, to be honest, because I think -- and maybe a lot of guys out here would attest we all love competing, and there just was none of that.
So I probably was a little bit rusty last week, but, again, it was a good chance for me to sort of step back and learn from it and kind of get my game right where I want it.
Q. How many times have you played practice rounds with Ernie, and what was it like, if you saw that he was at 5 under at one point?
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: You might not believe it, but yesterday was the first time. First time I played with Ernie. Obviously, a hero of mine growing up, massively so. So it was pretty cool for me.
He didn't hit it great yesterday. So when -- after the round, he told Ricky, he was like, okay, bring me four more bags. We're going to go hit some balls. So I was happy surprised to see he was up there on the leaderboard today.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
Rev #1 by #181 at 2020-06-18 17:50:00 GMT
