Erik van Rooyen grouped with his caddie at 3M Open

Erik van Rooyen won’t just need a replacement caddie for this week’s 3M Open.

He’ll have to watch his usual bagman hit shots for at least a couple rounds.

Alex Gaugert, the 30-year-old caddie who has looped for Van Rooyen for the past four years and before that was Van Rooyen’s college teammate at Minnesota, Monday-qualified into the 156-player field at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota. Gaugert shot 6-under 65 Monday at nearby Victory Links before getting through a 4-for-3 playoff.

With Gaugert, an Edina, Minnesota, resident, earning his first career PGA Tour start, it means that Van Rooyen will need a fill-in caddie. Van Rooyen took to Twitter afterward to start the search: “What a…