RBC HERITAGE

April 16, 2022

Erik Van Rooyen

Harbour Town Golf Links

Quick Quotes

Q. Erik, how would you kind of describe your moving day today?

ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Great. I played with a lot of freedom, really, really happy. Really with my overall game from putting, chipping, iron play, driving. I feel like it's all at a really high level, so happy.

Q. I was talking to your caddie Austin. He said you just drove it on a string today. What was working so well with the driver?

ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Just my tempo really. You know, I think we go through phases throughout the season, and things are just coming together nicely for me right now.

I was disappointed to miss the cut at the Masters, but I still felt like I was playing well coming into that last week, and things are just moving in the right direction here.

I think I'm just sort of picking up steam at the right time of the season.

Q. So you can still take positives away from a missed cut at the Masters?

ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Yeah. Look, it's disappointing. It's Augusta National. I want to win that tournament. So when you don't play on the weekend, it sucks. But if you break it down sort of clinically, there's so many good things happening, and it's just a matter of putting all the little puzzle pieces together at the right time, and I'm certainly doing that this week.

Q. Why do you feel like you're hitting such a good stride right now in this part of the season?

ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Due to good work I've done up until now. Again, I took a break end of last year off the TOUR Championship. I didn't play a ton in the fall, and then went home for Christmas and pretty much sat on my back end for a long time.

It usually takes me a while to get going, we've seen sort of throughout my career. So maybe that's just how I go about it. We're obviously trying to figure out how to get into contention more often. But I'm trying not to think about it too much.

I work on the right stuff. When it doesn't go well, we try and evaluate. When it goes well, we evaluate as well what's going well and take it from there.

Q. The missed short putt on 15, what kind of happened there? Was it easy for you to kind of move on from that?

ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Yeah, it was easy to move on, especially if I felt like I hit a good putt. If I didn't do my job well, I probably would have been upset.

It's a tricky first putt because it's sort of up the first hill, steep bank, and then it runs away from you. So to get the speed right is tricky. Then it was just a misread. I saw it dead straight, and it broke left to right. I'm human. What are you going to do about it?

Q. I know your normal caddie Alex isn't here. Him and his wife are expecting their second child. But you have his brother on the bag, Austin.

ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Keeping it in the family.

Q. What does Austin bring this week that maybe has helped you a little this week that is similar or different to Alex?

ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Look, they've both got great energy, really positive guys. They love grinding, working hard. Austin is maybe a little more vocal than Alex. Alex is a bit more cold blooded, reminds me to just stick to my task. He doesn't get very emotional.

I'm quite an emotional guy. Austin's never caddied for me before, so it's great to see the two differences and maybe take something from this week that I can help Alex with to be better on the golf course or something that hasn't worked that Alex and I do well.

It's been a really positive experience having Austin on the bag for sure.

Q. Lastly, just going into tomorrow, obviously winning last year, winning breeds winning, and you want to do it more. What can you maybe take from that or some of these other positive experiences you've been having in this kind of run-up to tomorrow and hopefully come out on top?

ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Yeah, like you said, winning breeds winning. I've done it before. Nothing changes. It's really -- people always feel like there's this special thing that you have to do. At the end of the day, it's just golf. So go play your good golf, and it will take care of itself.