'Do it for Trazzy': Jon Trasamar’s legacy lives on through college golf scholarship

Alex Gaugert isn’t sure what emotion hit him first.

Erik van Rooyen had just holed an improbable eagle putt at the last to win last year’s World Wide Technology Championship, and as caddie and player embraced, Gaugert couldn’t hold back the tears. Their joy, relief, grief, guilt and sadness had reached a breaking point.

Van Rooyen’s victory secured a TOUR card that was in doubt when arrived in Cabo at 125th in the FedExCup Fall standings, but the moment seemed so insignificant given the circumstances. Their hearts were 1,700 miles away in a Mayo Clinic hospital room, where their college teammate and friend Jon Trasamar was losing his fight to cancer – a fact they had learned of just six days earlier.

“Every shot out there today was for him,” van Rooyen said on the 18th green. He paused, choking back tears as Gaugert held up van Rooyen’s ball, “JT” written on it in Trasamar’s honor. Within 24 hours, they were at their friend’s bedside saying their final goodbyes. Trasamar died five days later, on Nov. 11, at age 33.

“It’s a reminder of how little time we have … with the people we love,” van Rooyen said.

Talking about Trasamar still conjures emotion; van Rooyen and Gaugert wear “Do it for Trazzy” bracelets. It’s what they said to each other before van Rooyen stepped into every shot last year, and it powered van Rooyen to a back-nine 28 to win.

“We were meant to win that golf tournament,” Gaugert said recently. “Like (Trasamar) had some little dust that he was sprinkling on us to win that event.”

A group of Trasamar’s family and close friends, including van Rooyen and Gaugert, have since started the Jon Trasamar Scholarship Fund. Cal Simmons, former president of the Minnesota Golf Association and ardent supporter of the University of Minnesota golf program, spearheaded the fund’s creation.

“I wanted the young men that are coming into the program to see what kind of values (he had, and what he stood for),” Simmons said. “I just wanted everybody coming into the program to know what the best looked like.”

A Minnesota-based alignment stick company, Bubba Whips, created custom alignment sticks with maroon and gold colors and the inscription, “Do it for Trazzy.” (Gaugert is a friend of the company.) All proceeds are donated to the scholarship fund. The family also held a charity golf tournament, The Trazzy Open, in October to raise money for the foundation. The fundraiser was hosted at Trasamar’s home course, Hawks Landing Golf Club in Verona, Wisconsin. The fund has raised more than $200,000 since its inception and is financially stable as an endowed scholarship.

Jack Wetzel, a junior at Minnesota, was the first recipient of the scholarship. He received $10,000 for the 2024-25 academic year.

“I don't think there'll be an issue on his legacy being carried on the right way because of the impact I think he had,” said Gaugert. “You’d be very proud to call him a friend. As his father, you'd be very proud to call him your son. As his wife, you'd be very proud to call him your husband. He was a supreme dude.”

Trasamar was born and raised in Blue Earth, a small town in south central Minnesota, 10 miles from the Wisconsin border. He played at the University of Minnesota from 2009-14, captaining the team in ‘13 and ‘14. Under Trasamar and van Rooyen’s leadership, the Gophers won the 2014 Big Ten Championship, the school’s first conference title since 2007. Trasamar turned professional after college, won five times on the Dakotas Tour and made eight starts on the Korn Ferry Tour in eight years.

Doctors first identified Trasamar’s melanoma during a skin check in May 2022, and the next year included several surgeries. Originally located in his shoulder and thigh, the cancer also spread to his ribs, but by April of 2023, he was given a clean bill of health. Surgeries and immunotherapy had worked, but that elation and relief was short-lived, as a recurrence was confirmed in September. By October, tumors had spread and put pressure on his spine, leaving a devastating prognosis.

“Not good news. Tumors are pushing against the cord,” Trasamar wrote in an Oct. 30 text to friends, including Simmons, who shared it in an MGA post. “The tumors coming back means it’s getting past every line of defense we’ve thrown at it. I don’t have a lot of time left. Hopefully, they can give me some pain and sleep relief.”

Van Rooyen was already in Mexico when he received the text. He considered withdrawing, but at No. 125 in the FedExCup, he decided to stay and play for his card, then fly directly to see Trasamar afterward. Van Rooyen shot 68-64-66 to get within one of Matt Kuchar and Camilo Villegas going into the last round. Staying with a friend that week, Gaugert and van Rooyen returned from the course and shared stories of Trasamar. They cried the night before the final round, as they had every night for almost a week.

A final-round 63 seemed somehow providential, van Rooyen playing with the help of not only caddie Gaugert but also Trasamar. The South African van Rooyen holed birdie putts outside of 20 feet on the 16th and 17th before pouring in a closing eagle of similar length on the 18th to solidify his second PGA TOUR victory.

“I mean, it's a complete statistical anomaly, right,” van Rooyen said. “Making three sort of 20 to 25 footers to win the tournament by two, to shoot 28 on the back nine.”

Simmons still remembers the first time he saw Trasamar swing a club. Van Rooyen will always remember their first meeting when Trasamar and his family waited for van Rooyen to land at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport for the first time as a college freshman. Gaugert will remember one of Trasamar’s last moments, when his ailing friend grabbed Gaugert’s hand and felt his wedding ring, realizing that he, Trasamar, had forgotten to put his ring on.

“He had gotten so frail the ring kept falling off him,” Gaugert said. “He was battling and all he wanted to do was just remember to put his ring (on) to show his love for his wife because you know how much she has battled.”

Those memories will remain dear to those who knew Trasamar. His legacy, and the scholarship his loved ones helped start, will ensure Trazzy is remembered by many more.