Erik van Rooyen was thinking more about his Gophers golf family than his second PGA Tour win on Sunday.

A teary-eyed van Rooyen shared how every shot in his 27-under par win was for Jon Trasamar, a former Gophers golfer who is battling melanoma in Minnesota.

“When you are playing for something bigger than winning some silly trophy, it puts it into perspective,” van Rooyen said after capturing the World Wide Technologies Championship. “At the end of the day, whether I won here or whether I lost here, it really did not matter.

“When something motivates you like that, whether you miss a putt or make a putt, who cares.”

As van Rooyen spoke, his caddie and fellow former Gopher golfer, Alex Gaugert, dabbed his eyes with his bib.

The news of Trasamar’s heath brought down van Rooyen and Gaugert during Friday’s round.

“I get to my tour room and I just break down in tears,” van Rooyen shared. “It wasn’t that calm all the time (over the weekend). When I step onto the golf course, I got a freaking job to do. That is what it comes down to at the end of the day — do your job. Now we can celebrate and cry and do whatever you want, but until that last put drops, it’s focus and do it for Trasy.”

“Every shot out there today was for him.” @FredVR_‘s best friend, Jon Trasamar, is battling cancer.

Van Rooyen just made a walk-off eagle to win @WWTChampionship. pic.twitter.com/6vS0HvzfJU

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 5, 2023

Trasamar, a 32-year-old from Blue Earth, Minn., has been living in Arizona as he pursues the PGA Tour, but has recently gone to Mayo Clinic to receive treatment advanced treatments, according to his GoFundMe page. Van Rooyen said he planned to travel from the tour stop in Las Cabos, Mexico, to Minnesota to see Trasamar early this week.

“Now we can celebrate and cry and do whatever you want, but until that last put drops, it’s focus and do it for Trasy,” said van Rooyen, who previously won on tour at the 2021 Barracuda Championship. “We love him so much and I’m still sort of in disbelief of what he is going though and I wish I could take all his pain away. … I will give him a high five then.”

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