Erik van Rooyen lives, golfs in honor of late best friend Jon ‘Trazzy’ Trasamar | Golf Channel

Once fighting for his PGA Tour status while Jon “Trazzy” Trasamar was fighting for his life, Erik van Rooyen’s late best friend’s memory keeps everything in perspective and inspires him to play — live — fearlessly. #GolfChannel #PGATour #ErikVanRooyen
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Erik van Rooyen lives, golfs in honor of late best friend Jon ‘Trazzy’ Trasamar | Golf Channel
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the funny thing about this ridiculous game is when you’re playing your P wow it feels so easy van royan just could not miss and when it’s hard it feels like how am I ever going to play good again the pressure just keeps building and building building and then you get that text from your best friend and um yeah it puts everything in perspective [Music] PG T status was always the goal when Eric Van royan left his childhood home in South Africa to attend the University of Minnesota in the summer of 2009 waiting for him at the airport that day was his freshman roommate and new teammate John trasar who went by the nickname trzy he was like the leader in the team you know he was the one that always said things onle all four my years were with him he always made the right decision when the easy decision was probably the wrong decision after college Van Roy climbed the professional ranks and got married with trasar serving as his best Man 2 years later John met a Midwest girl named Ally whom he married in March of 2022 this photo is one of my favorite photos from our wedding the smiles the laughter the happiness it’s exactly how they were whenever they saw each other great great their relationship was beyond just a traditional friendship they were almost like brothers just 2 months after the wedding the newlyweds lives changed forever I actually was the one that encouraged him to go see his dermatologist he had a mole on his back that tested positive for melanoma I was 32 he’s 32 you know you feel invincible so you don’t think anything’s going to happen after his treatments had started he really wasn’t feeling well and that led to another full body scan which showed that the cancer had spread everywhere Eric was there to check in on John to be a listening ear if John needed a chat it is because of relationships as strong as that A brotherhood that you do those things for the people that you love within a few months John’s scans were once again clear of cancer with his best friend in good spirits and believing the worst was behind them Eric’s Focus returned to golf and fighting to keep his PJ tour card in November 2023 Van Roy was on the bubble with only three events remaining I don’t remember it like it was yesterday I’m in the gym it’s about an hour and a half before my pram and he sends us a group text all our friends saying hey boys bad news doctors giv me 6 to 10 weeks to live and I break down in tears while I’m doing my warm up on the course it just became this idea of we’re doing it for trzy he would almost tell me every every shot um this one’s for TR let’s go I think that was pretty powerful in a selfish way certainly helped me focus with no fear whatsoever no regard for the result in a sense and that gave me a ton of Freedom money playing for something greater than himself right now John had a phone propped up in his hospital room with coverage so we could watch Eric play oh he did it again Eric Van royan six burries in his last eight hole I don’t really know how we did it because after golf I’d be in my room crying boiling my eyes out and then the morning of it’s like okay let’s go do the job let’s go do the job let’s do it you know we’re doing this for trzy so we can go see him it is an eagle putt to win the tournament [Music] if you look at my ball the little music notes on there and and initials JT and it’s for John trasar our best friend and every shot out there today was for him I don’t think Eric probably realized how important of a week it was for John to in the sense that this tournament gave him a sense of joy that otherwise probably wouldn’t have been present van Roy’s Victory didn’t just provide job security for the next 2 years with his status secure it also gave him one last chance to see his best friend the next morning Eric and his caddy Alex goer flew from Mexico to Minnesota to say goodbye never forget sitting in the hospital is sitting on one side of the bed and he was sitting on the other and we’re each hold his hand I looked at Ali and I told her I said Alie we should probably go and she said yeah I grabbed his hand and the last thing he told me was I’ll see you soon John passed away on November 11th 1111 I try to live every day in honor of him I keep seeing this quote that says keep going because the person in heaven doesn’t want you to quit and every single time I see that I think of John I don’t think anything’s ever going to fill that void I think you’ll just learn how to live with it his life pushes me to be the best version of myself and grab Life by the horns if Eric was ever in need of some strength John was a good source for him to remind him that you can do hard things it’s not until you’re put into a situation where you have no other choice but to be strong that you realize how strong you truly are Thomas schs tell your best friend you love him