winner Erik van Rooyen has vented his feelings about the limited-field, no-cut format employed at certain events. He has wormed his way into one such tournament - the upcoming Signature Event at the Truist Championship - by finishing second behind at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson over the weekend.

Van Rooyen's strong showing catapulted him inside the Aon Swing 5, which rewards the top-five FedEx Cup points earners from full-field events between the Signature Events throughout the season. And while that will give him a shot at a handsome payday at Philadelphia Cricket Club this week, he feels that the sport as a whole suffers when fields shrink.

When asked about his take on the format, Van Rooyen conceded that Scheffler and Rory McIlroy will always draw in big crowds if they are in contention over all four days, but was brutally honest in sharing his own feelings.

Van Rooyen said: "How honest do you want me to be? I hate it! I strongly believe that the strongest fields are the ones with the most players in them. The guys on the PGA Tour are so good. It's so deep.

"I get that you've got the Scotties of the world, the Rorys of the world, and people want to see them, it's entertaining. Like the PGA Championship coming up, for example, it's the strongest field in the game, similar to The Players. I love competing, so selfishly I want to compete against those guys."

Van Rooyen, who has won twice on the PGA Tour, shot an exceptional 23-under at TPC Craig Ranch but still finished a whopping eight strokes behind runaway victor Scheffler.

Afterwards, he admitted that gaining entry to the Signature Event at the Truist Championship was not even on his radar. "I didn't know," he said. "My mom and dad are in from South Africa, so we were going to go home and relax a bit.

"That's a fun problem to have. Looking forward to playing golf there. I love the golf in that part of the world. I don't know much about the golf course yet, but it's a good problem to have."

Van Rooyen, who was born in Johannesburg, turned professional in 2013 and reached a career-high world ranking of 40th in 2020. His best major performance came at the PGA Championship in 2019, when he finished tied for eighth place.