Van Rooyen fired an eight-under 28(!)
And then he broke down in tears.
This was one for Jon.
“I grew up in a really small town.
The golf course was not great.
So leaving home wasn’t easy.
Jon and his family lived about two hours away from Minneapolis.
We obviously became best friends.
So we were roommates for three out of the four years I was in college.
“I still think he’s got one of the best short games I’ve ever seen.
He pursued a career in golf up until recently obviously.
He’s really like a brother to me.”
Which has made the last year-plus so difficult.
What follows is a nightmare.
Not long after, the cancer had returned with a vengeance.
He has 6-10 weeks to live.
Van Rooyen had his sick buddy on his mind all day on Sunday.
Now he’ll head back to Minnesota to visit Trasamar at the Mayo Clinic.
And he’ll do so with a shiny new trophy in his hands.
When youre playing for something bigger than winning some silly trophy, it puts it into perspective.
A deep thinker, and a flusher of the golf ball.
They’re an excellent match.
Van Rooyen was asked in his presser what’s the biggest thing he’s learned from Foley.
“Perspective,” he said.
I was missing cuts.
I think at one point I missed 10 cuts in a row.
When we talk, sometimes it’s an hour and we don’t even talk about golf.
That’s really the conversations we’ve had.”
“A lot of positives this week,” Villegas, now 41, said.
“Man, it’s been a long few years, a lot of work.
“But I don’t want to stop playing, man.
You never know, you never know.
You keep waiting for the results to come and you keep grinding and you keep grinding.
And obviously this week was a special one.
You know what, I’ve got no regrets this week, it was a good effort.”
Not everyone was a fan of the setup.
Scores were low this week.
Really, really low.
Plus, no wind.
That all added up to a cut of five under par, and -18 only got you a T15.
The fairways were among the widest you’ll ever see.
Kelly Kraft wasn’t pleased.
he wrote on Instagram.
“About the golf, not sure where to start.
At least, that was the original version.
He then edited the post to a much softer critique.
Perhaps his agent got in his ear.
Tiger’s not a guy you want against you.
Here’s the newer, less aggressive caption.
All things considered, a compelling week on a normally sleepy part of the calendar.
He didn’t seem to be getting any stronger.
Weaker, if anything.
That’s what made the videos that surfaced this week so encouraging.
There are levels to this.
The goal was to stabilize his foot and allow him to walk better, particularly on uneven surfaces.
That, Woods determined, was worth giving up a little bit of side-to-side mobility in the foot.
These videos are the surest signs of yet of concrete progress in the walking department.
I’ll say the odds are greater than 50/50 that we see him in in Orlando next month.
On a human level, it’s refreshing to see Woods moving better and looking much more spry.
Elsewhere
Keeping up with the theme of recognizable names, how about Matteo Mannessero?
25 in the world rankings.
So painful was his drop in form.
The PGA Tour is reportedly considering private-equity investment from a number of high-profile firms.
Speaking of TGL, we now know what the matches themeselves will look like.
The below video has all the info.
Still cruising around 180 mph ball speed, he’s been an absolute menace on the 50+ surface.
This week marks the penultimate PGA Tour event of the season: the Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
Let’s hope it produces as much juice as the WWT Championship does
