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South African golfer Erik van Rooyen He hasn’t left his Florida home in a month and believes things will only return to normal when a vaccine is found to stop the coronavirus pandemic.
Last month Van Rooyen was making his debut in the Players’ Championship, but now with golf in limbo, he can’t go out on the field.
The 30-year-old had a stellar 2019 season so far, earning his first title on the European Tour and entering the Top 50 in the World Golf Ranking.
Van Rooyen was looking for a good ending at TPC Sawgrass, until he received a text message from the PGA Tour announcing the event’s cancellation.
“The atmosphere at the start of the tournament was incredible … I’ve only seen the tournament on TV, so playing was really special, it’s the biggest sports tournament after the big leagues,” said Van Rooyen Sport24 in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.
“I played well that first round and was literally on the phone with my caddy and my best friend Alex when we received a text message saying it had been canceled.”
“At first I thought this was not happening … it was strange and strange.”
Van Rooyen stated that the impact of the pandemic hit home when the PGA and the European Tour began canceling events.
“The next morning (at TPC Sawgrass), everyone walked into the clubhouse to pick up their bags and they were packing and leaving,” said Van Rooyen.
“At the time, I thought it was a complete overreaction, I was pretty naive about the Covid-19 virus. Then after they started canceling more events and somehow hit home …
“I have been watching the news and seeing who is affected and since then I have been locked in my house.”
Last week, the PGA Tour announced plans to resume in June with the Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial Country Club. However, as of April 22, there have been 834,858 positive cases of coronavirus in the United States of America with more than 46,000 deaths, so that date is still pending.
And Van Rooyen believes that “it could be soon” and believes that there are still many unanswered questions when golf finally resumes.
“I think initially when golf resumes it will be different,” said the South African.
“The PGA Tour is trying to start in June in Texas, my speculation is that it may be too soon. There are still many unanswered questions about it, questions about safety and if it is early regarding traveling …
“It will probably be different until we have a vaccine. Hopefully once we find a vaccine, we can have big crowds again and the big leagues will happen when it’s supposed to happen, not like in November when we hope to have the vaccine. Teachers this year .
“Life as we know it will be completely different,” Van Rooyen continued.
“I hope there is a lot more respect for people, like doctors and nurses. It is a much bigger threat since you can’t see it. They deserve more credit for what they are doing.”
