Nicolas Echavarria staves off stars, wins ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP by one
On Wednesday night in Japan, Nico Echavarria and his longtime girlfriend Claudia De Antonio had steak. The best steak he’s ever had.
Come Sunday, it was time to return. A deserving celebratory meal after setting the tournament scoring record at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP and winning for the second time on the PGA TOUR.
Echavarria had the sizzle this week. And now he’ll get the steak.
“It’s surreal. This moment is very special,” Echavarria said.
The native of Colombia, who won the 2023 Puerto Rico Open for his maiden TOUR title, fired a final-round 67 at ACCORDIA GOLF Narashino Country Club to top Justin Thomas and Max Greyserman by one.
Thomas battled a cold putter on the back nine Sunday and ran off a string of eight straight pars before making a final-hole birdie to get to 19-under. Greyserman was at 19-under heading into the 72nd hole but hit his drive into trouble on the right side. He had a 24-foot birdie try on No. 18, but it barely missed, leaving the door open for Echavarria.
Unlike at the Wyndham Championship, where Greyserman had a four-shot lead with five holes to go but ended up losing by two, he battled until the end – and notched his third runner-up finish in his last five starts on TOUR.
“It wasn’t like Wyndham where I gave it away. I felt good out there the whole time,” Greyserman said. “Didn’t quite execute down the stretch when I needed to. I mean, Nico stepped up there and he hit a great second shot (on 18). He earned it.”
Echavarria had a 3-foot attempt of his own for the win on the final hole and the 30-year-old calmly drained it. He celebrated with a double fist pump and a huge, hearty embrace of De Antonio.
“It was very close all day, it was fun. (Thomas and Greyserman) got off to a hot start and it was very level during the last, I don’t know, 13 holes or 10 holes,” Echavarria said. “Max played great. Justin has been playing incredible, he hit a lot of good putts that didn’t go in. But overall, it was special to finish birdie-par-birdie and take this home.
“It’s the second win on the PGA TOUR; not a lot of people get to win two times on the PGA TOUR. I’m just going to enjoy this as much as I can and get ready for the next one.”
Echavarria credited a grip change to his putter as part of his success this week. He sits 106th on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting for the season but was an impressive eighth this week in the same metric. He was also second in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green. Echavarria had his coach in Las Vegas who passed along a few drills to try to help him tighten up things with the flatstick, he said. Echavarria still felt like there was something missing, however, so Tuesday morning in Japan he changed his grip. Fast-forward five days and that tweak has paid off in a big way.
Somewhat wildly, Echavarria’s only two top-10 individual results on the PGA TOUR have been victories (he did finish T4 earlier this season at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans alongside Greyserman). He had three missed cuts in his last four starts heading into Japan and was the surprise front-runner heading into Sunday’s finale after setting the 54-hole tournament scoring record.
But he said victory No. 1 absolutely allowed him the confidence to notch victory No. 2.
“I don’t think I would have won this week without the victory in Puerto Rico. I pulled a lot of that moment in the last round on Sunday in Puerto Rico; I used it a lot this week to stay patient, stay calm,” Echavarria said. “This is a very challenging course. There’s a lot of hard holes and I was able to use that in my favor and I was able to get it done and beat two amazing players.”
With this win, Echavarria receives plenty of perks including what will be his first trip down Magnolia Lane for the 2025 Masters. He’ll get to represent Colombia at Augusta National, just as he did this past summer in Paris for the Olympics. He said it was “very cool” to be able to win on the PGA TOUR for the second time internationally as he hopes this will help make the game even more popular in his homeland.
At his home, in Medellin, Colombia, Echavarria’s parents were glued to the TV in the middle of the night. Their son rang as soon as he could after his win. And there were tears.
“They stayed up all night watching the golf and I’m glad they did,” Echavarria said. “Very happy and emotional just being able to talk to them because my parents are the reason I play this beautiful sport.”
A beautiful win – with a beautiful meal to celebrate.
SOURCE: [pgatour.com]
